Six Paths to Take
by Infernezor
Summary: : In the past, the Gods fought with ruin to save intelligent life. They failed. The Sage fought with the Jyuubi, and it was widely accepted that he succeeded. Naruto is left to clean up after both of their mistakes. Only, what place does a mortal have dealing with the affairs of Gods? Not Godlike Naruto, surprisingly. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi. First of all, I'd like to avoid any rotten fruit you lot may wish to throw at me and claim that I've almost completed 'In Search of a Namikaze'. I've just run into a bit of a roadblock and haven't quite figured out how to get around it. The chapter, as it stands, is about 16k words long, so, yea. I'm having a few issues resolving Kindness, which you guys haven't met.**

**I've done quite a few stories and none of them involve using Naruto in the way that I've planned to in this story. I'd like to state flat out and right now, I know nothing of romance, therefore I avoid it if possible. That being said, some of the things the characters may say or notice may seem to indicate at times that I've may be straying into that territory. I'll let you know if I decide anything and make it obvious when I do. I'll put it in an A/N…or something.**

**This is also a story that will be told on more than one front. It's not so much Naruto centric, as it is telling a story of the world.**

**Betaed and edited by Blackrazgriz and Duessal10, may many a wonderful and highly questionable act happen to them. And may they enjoy them.**

_Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it._

_- Lou Holtz_

Summary: In the past, the Gods fought with ruin to save intelligent life. They failed.

The Sage fought with the Jyuubi, and it was widely accepted that he succeeded.

Naruto is left to clean up after both of their mistakes. Only, what place does a mortal have dealing with the affairs of Gods?

Not Godlike Naruto, surprisingly. AU.

**Part One: The Path of Hell**

**Prologue**

The red sky shook, sending thousands of glowing cracks across the blue-red corona that protected them from the force of the blow. The ground splintered and roared as mountains were crushed and remade from the concussion. Ruin had come.

Susanoo stood with hands clasped in front of him, his face a line of determination as he gazed up at the roiling sky. He, with his fellow Gods, formed an outward facing circle on what remained of a cliff. It was his shield, his bones, which kept destiny at bay, if only for the moment.

"He tried to kill us once before." Amaterasu noted serenely from where she too was watching the maw of the universe close on what remained of their group.

"I remember." Izanagi replied.

He still clutched the haft of his broken spear grimly in one hand. He had made the weapon himself, it seemed only fitting that it die with him as well. One last act before the end.

"You're sweating like a human, brother, next it will be tears." Izanami said reproachfully, however, there was a hidden joke in her tone.

"That is not such a bad thing, I fear." Jashin grunted, twisting one of the many spears that pierced his body in anticipation for the final clash.

Among all of the gods it was Jashin who was the surprise member in their little group. The god of Suffering was an odd figure to stand among the final warriors of light. However, as Jashin himself had explained, it was a deeply personal decision.

Another blow resounded throughout empty cosmos, a roar, a message, and a warning.

"This isn't about revenge? It's about repayment?" Tsukuyomi asked incredulously, gazing up at the sky as if it had lost its mind.

"You can't reason with him." Amaterasu said sharply, cutting off anything Tsukuyomi might have said.

Another explosion of sound, cracking the edges of the cliff they stood upon.

"I can't hold him much longer." Said Susanoo.

"This is the end then," Jashin said, a wild, wicked smile spreading across his blackened face. He was going to enjoy this.

"There will be others." Amaterasu said, the serene smile never leaving her face. "We may scatter here, but others will finish what we start. Even if we couldn't complete_ his_ weapon, the fundamentals have been put in place."

Tsukuyomi snorted in a very un-god-like manner. "We had power before we had weapons. We may have grown old, but we still have the power to put on a little display. Just like the old days."

The cracks in the sky widened as another blow wracked the sky.

"So we die here," Susanoo said. "What little remains of us becomes scattered across the world imprisoning Ruin in the hopes that when the time comes, everything just happens to work out."

The shield shattered and Ruin descended.

Amaterasu smiled.

"I do hope they forgive us for this. We tried our best."

**Chapter One**

**The Decisions We Die With**

_Sometimes, I worry that I'm not the hero everyone thinks I am._

_The philosophers assure me that this is the time, that the signs have been met. But I still wonder if they have the wrong man. So many people depend on me. They say I will hold the future of the entire world on my arms._

_What would they think if they knew that their champion - the sage of six paths, their savior - doubted himself? Perhaps they wouldn't be shocked at all. In a way, this is what worries me most. Maybe, in their hearts, they wonder - just as I do._

_When they see me, do they see a liar?_

Rikudou Sennin – _A fair bit from the Center_

**Line Break**

**Character list: Itachi, Sarutobi, Naruto, Sasuke.**

They say that the prospect of death concentrates the mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, soon, it will be in a body that is going to be dead.

Itachi stumbled through one of Konoha's exterior forests with all the grace of an unprofessional drunk, clutching at a deep wound that was bleeding at his side. The blood seeping through his fingers was dyeing the white outlining's around the red clouds on his black Akatsuki robes a deep crimson. It was only one of the many wounds that were etched into his body with a haphazard pattern that would make a child with a crayon proud.

He'd been ambushed just outside of Konoha's borders by two of his fellow Akatsuki members, Sasori and Deidara. They weren't supposed to have been there. The explosives expert and puppeteer were supposed to be trailing the Ichibi, the one tailed beast. Trailing it for its eventual capture. Just as Itachi and his partner, Kisame Hoshigaki, were going to be picking up the Kyuubi from Konoha.

Today was October tenth. More specifically and importantly, it was the Twelfth anniversary of the Kyuubi's attack and subsequent defeat at the hands of the Fourth Hokage. The village as a whole would be celebrating, drinking, and generally being negligent of their defenses for the entirety of the day and night, making it the perfect time to sneak in and capture the young Jinchuuriki.

Itachi blinked several times in rapid succession, trying to clear his blurring vision.

'_Poison.'_ He concluded grimly, regaining his vision by channeling more chakra to his eyes. It was a temporary stopgap until he ran out of energy and time. '_Its creator is using a toxin I can't detect. Unsurprising, considering who concocted it.'_

Sasori and Deidara had attacked them both without preamble or dialogue. It was incredibly foolish of them. Deidara's clay explosives were easily spotted, countered, and nullified by Itachi's Doujutsu, the Sharingan. And Sasori's puppets chakra strings could be severed by Kisame's chakra devouring blade. Rather, it would have been incredibly foolish if Itachi's partner hadn't turned on him as well.

It had taken all of his cunning, most of his chakra, and he'd been forced to set fair bit of the forest aflame in simply escape. The issue was that he hadn't gotten out unscathed, thus his troubling predicament. He'd taken several hits during his flight and most unfortunately one of the weapons he'd been tagged by was poisoned with a toxin he couldn't purge. There were only two people on the planet that could possibly cure him, and neither of them he could reach in time.

Pain wracked Itachi's body, causing him to stumble heavily into one of the many maple trees that spotted the forest. Gritting his teeth against the pain the spreading venom was causing, Itachi shouldered forward, determined to reach one of his hideouts and send warning so they could hide away the Jinchuuriki before the Akatsuki could capture the boy. It would be his final act.

He'd been betrayed. That was the only explanation for the attack he could come up with. Someone who knew that he was a double agent, a spy working for Konoha, reporting on Akatsuki's movements and activities had betrayed him.

They had discovered his duplicity and decided to eliminate him before he could sabotage their efforts.

There were few that knew that it was on orders that he'd slaughtered his family on orders from the Hokage two years previously and even fewer that would have betrayed him.

He'd narrowed the list down to Danzō, Homura, and Koharu, although, it didn't really matter. All that mattered was that Itachi had to warn Konoha and save the demon container, then die in such a way that his body would never be found.

Itachi fumbled into a small clearing in the trees, complete with small mounds of dirt. Limping over to where an oak stood upon one of the hills, long brown roots splitting out of the mount of earth only to dive back in further down, as if afraid of open air. It one of the many rises and falls in the landscape, indistinguishable from the rest. Itachi bent over and crawled through a small hole at the base of the hillock, working his way into a small crawlway. Wooden support beams and clean-shaven planks kept the cramped passageway from collapsing in on itself when it rained, or on particularly dry days when the earth was flaky and prone to movement.

After a brief descent, hampered by his continually bleeding wounds, Itachi reached the end of the passageway and toppled the two foot drop to the stone cavern's floor. Wearily bringing himself to his feet, he glanced around the room while lighting the torch by the entrance with a small flick of his fingers and a muttered Katon jutsu, his Sharingan taking in every threadbare stone and small boulder that littered his cavern.

He'd found the natural cave during one of his private training sessions years ago, back when he'd still been a member of Konoha. Back before he'd been ordered to murder his entire family. He'd been practicing his Doton Jutsu when he'd accidentally uncovered the small cavern.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Itachi's lips. He'd been so innocent and adventurous back then. The idea of having his own private headquarters had consumed his younger self's fantasy for days as he carefully reburied the structure and crafted the small tunnel for easy access. It also had the bonus effect of hiding his chakra underneath several thousand pounds of dirt.

'_So it's come in use after all.'_ Itachi mused, continuing his scan of his old command center.

A small wooden table stood on three legs in the furthermost left corner. It would seem as though time, damp and mold had conspired together to devour the fourth leg, and was making a valiant push through the rest of the table. A few feet away eight rusty kunai lay where a small shelf used to hang, nailed into the rocky wall with a stone spike.

Itachi narrowed his eyes. Even though it had been years since he'd last visited this place, his memory of it was perfect. He had kept nine kunai in that shelf. Nine seemed to have become a special number to him. Nine was the number of tails the beast that had destroyed his home had possessed. Nine was the amount of times he'd stabbed his father. Nine was the amount of members in Akatsuki. And finally, it was the Nine Tails Demon's container he was trying to save. His Sharingan picked up a slight movement from behind one of the rocks, no more than a twitch in the shadows. The Akatsuki had found him.

Turning to face the intruder, Itachi deftly palmed a kunai hidden up his left sleeve, bringing it up defensively. The sudden movement had reopened the wound in his side, causing him to hiss slightly as he fumbled his back step, his right hand instinctively clutching at the pain.

Realizing he'd discovered, a small figure burst out from behind the rock. With a metallic clang of steel against stone, the child pressed against the floor with two small hands to give himself an extra burst of inertia and speed, screaming a thin battle cry in an effort to startle his opponent and throw him off guard.

Itachi easily followed the figure's path as the child jumped between rock shadows with his cursed eyes, catching a glimpse of muddy, blond hair in the flickering torchlight as the boy made his way towards him. Once the blond was in range he let out a hoarse scream of fear and desperation as he leapt at the Uchiha, Itachi's missing ninth kunai glinting in the erratic light the torch was emanating.

Itachi raised a brow in surprise. It would seem as though the Kyuubi's Container had come to him. As to how the kid had found his way in here, Itachi couldn't even begin to speculate. In the end, though, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that the boy was safe.

Easily sidestepping the inexperienced attack, Itachi released his side and reached out towards where the Kyuubi boy had gone careening past him, deftly catching the runt by the back of his neck midflight. Itachi squeezed tightly, forcing a cry of pain from the child as he dropped the kunai to the ground with a clatter and scraped uselessly with his fingers at the Uchiha's iron like grip.

"Stop your squirming." Itachi commanded, shaking Naruto slightly to emphasize his point.

The boy slumped pitifully at his words, arms falling loosely to his side while dropping his head forward, the perfect picture of defeat.

Itachi frowned. He didn't have much experience with children beyond his younger brother, Sasuke, as was at a loss as to why the child had given up so quickly. Sasuke would have screamed, bit, clamored, and kicked until he was either released or knocked out. From what he'd experienced during the war and what he'd seen from other children in the village that was the common reaction children gave when they didn't get what they wanted. He'd expected a much more irritating fight from a demon container than what the boy was currently putting up and far more than what he'd seen in civilian children.

'_But then the boy has only recently unlocked his chakra.'_ Itachi realized. '_He'd hardly better than a civilian at the moment.'_

The boy shuttered, letting out a little hiccup and a sniffle. Itachi raised an eyebrow, carefully setting the boy down on his feet and turning the compliant boy around with a stern hand. The boy was crying, tear streaks streaming down his dirty face.

Not knowing quite what to say, Itachi fell back on the Uchiha standard.

"Hn." He grunted.

Although inelegant, the sound had the desired effect. The boy looked up with red-rimmed eyes and asked in a choked voice, "I didn't take it, honest, Mister Breadmaker."

Itachi furrowed his brows in confusion. What in the Elemental Nations was the container talking about?

"It wasn't me. It was that other kid." The boy continued to ramble, "It was the other kid, I swear. I don't know his name. He asked me to ask you if you needed a hand…he said he would be my friend if I did. I didn't know he would take the bread, honest I didn't."

Realization dawned on Itachi. He could see in the dim light because of his Sharingan. But to the boy, the dim light provided by the small torch burning behind him that was doubtlessly casting his profile into a shadowy relief and wouldn't be able to identify that Itachi wasn't the bread merchant.

"How did you end up here?" Itachi asked, ignoring the boy's pleas. They were irrelevant. He could now confirm the boy's safety. All he had to do was send a missive to the Hokage and contain the boy until an ANBU team could come and retrieve him.

"M'found it a while ago." The boy mumbled, looking down and fidgeting from foot to foot.

Itachi nodded absent mindedly, not really paying attention to the explanation. He was using the question more to keep the boy occupied and stall of time than actually caring about the answer.

"What's that smell?" The Jinchuuriki asked curiously, leaning forward slightly sniffing at the air curiously.

"Mister!" The boy exclaimed, his eyes widening, blue eyes glinting oddly in the torchlight. "You're bleeding!"

Naruto moved forward without thinking and pressed at Itachi's side, childishly attempting to stem the blood flow.

'_The poison is slowing coagulation. I'll bleed out before long. I need to hurry and dispose of myself before Akatsuki finds me. I can't let them have my Sharingan.'_

Itachi knew the fire jutsu. All ninja were taught it when they became Chuunin. His body would be nothing but a pile of bones and ashes in the matter of a few minutes.

"Mister!" The boy yelled. His fear apparently forgotten now that he'd discovered that Itachi was wounded.

Itachi's eyes darted down to where the container was standing, looking up at him with concerned blue eyes, his oversized, orange jumpsuit hanging limply off of his small frame.

'_Container….'_ Itachi thought, the beginnings of a plan forming in his mind. It was a stupid plan, simple in its concept and impossible in its execution.

The boy didn't stand a chance and most certainly didn't see it coming. Before the Kyuubi's container knew what hit him, Itachi had already knocked him unconscious with a knife hand to the side of the neck. Snaking an arm under the limp boy, Itachi dragged him weakly further into the torchlight. He was going to need as much light as he could get for what he was about to do.

He was going to die. Itachi had realized and accepted that inevitability years ago. The moment he'd made his first kill it had occurred to him that one day, it would be him that was looking up at his executioner.

'_It would seem as though I was only half correct.' _Itachi thought, enjoying his own black humor as he cleansed the area around Naruto's left eye, condensing the water in the air enough to wet the skin.

'_Simple in concept, within the realms of insanity in execution.'_ Itachi began to chant, throwing himself into his task.

His plan, so far as it could be called a plan, was to store his eyes in the Kyuubi container. He originally intended for them to go his little brother. That plan had vanished the moment his betrayer had sold him out. However, the Container for the Kyuubi could serve as a container for his brother's future eyes.

It wasn't unprecedented for a doujutsu to be transferred. The issue was one of rejection. If transplanted by a skilled medic, only point-three percent of implants were accepted by the recipient with no negative side effects or mental damage. Itachi was not a skilled medic. He barely knew the procedure, having only superficially scanned over the principles of the operation in passing.

He was only even attempting this because he'd seen the Kyuubi's healing prowess in person. Even if he botched the operation it was unlikely that the boy would die. He might lose an eye though. It was an acceptable loss. The container didn't need to know how to fight. He simply needed to exist for his purpose to be served.

Forming a chakra scalpel in his right hand with his diminishing chakra reserves, Itachi opened the Kyuubi's Container wide with his left hand by pressing forcefully on the lids, exposing the muscles and blood vessels underneath. Carefully manipulating both his chakra and fingers, he cut away at the fat that protected the eye from the skull and severed the optic nerve, careful to maintain the synaptic properties and keep the link alive until he could replace the orb. The time limit had begun. He could repress the blood that ordinarily would be gushing from the child's eye socket with chakra, but the longer he had the blood clotted, the higher the risk of irrevocable damage. Blinking away a few beads of sweat from his own eyes, Itachi sealed Naruto's blue eye in a storage seal he kept on his wrist.

'_Now for the tricky part.'_

Activating his Mangekyou, the normal three-tomoe pinwheel forming into a black shuriken-like iris, Itachi repeated the procedure on himself, gritting his teeth against the agony. He couldn't risk deadening his nerves with chakra and he didn't have any pain suppressants on hand. He hardly woke up that morning with the intention to rip out his own eyes and implant them into a twelve-year-old Jinchuuriki. Unlike how he kept the boy's optic nerve and blood vessels active, he could cauterize his own. He wouldn't need them for much longer.

Inserting his former eye into the container, Itachi reformed the synaptic link and mended the blood vessels, realigning the boys own to compensate for the difference in eye size. The resulting dissimilarity between eyes made the boy look like he was immeasurably surprised on one side of his face.

'_He won't have to deal with this for long if everything goes to plan.' _Itachi told himself, reconciling the small amount of guilt he felt for using the boy like this.

Leaning back on his haunches, Itachi took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Slowly releasing the breath, Itachi returned to his work.

Reforming the chakra scalpel, he was about to cut at the boy's other eye when he noticed a small stream of vapor and red chakra drifting off of the eye he'd just implanted.

Itachi watched with mute horror as the eye shrunk in size, adjusting to match the size of his natural eye. That wasn't the problem, however. The problem was that the formerly Mangekyou eye had regressed to only two tomoe. He'd expected it to deactivate and tune down to a regular three-pinwheel Sharingan, like Kakashi's had. But to devolve to two tomoe was not supposed to happen. Itachi's horror increased tenfold as he watched the eye continue to shrink and regress further to a single tomoe, then disappear completely, leaving only a coal black eye that slowly lightened to match the vibrant shade of blue his other eye possessed.

Itachi slumped inwardly, staring at the greatest miscalculation he'd made in his entire life. He had counted on the Kyuubi covering for his inexperience with medical Ninjutsu. The idea that the Kyuubi would completely overwrite the eye to match the other had never occurred to him. He hadn't thought such a thing was even possible.

'_Unless...'_ Itachi thought, a desperate idea leaping into his head.

Reaching out and pressing two fingers gently against Naruto's eye, he forced chakra into the eye, hoping that it would respond to his chakra and activate.

Nothing happened. He had failed.

Itachi jerked his head upwards, towards where he felt a massive chakra signature appear. Kisame was getting very close. He hadn't counted on any of them being fortunate enough to stumble upon where he was hiding. Luckily for him, the shark-man was very bad at detecting and tracing chakra signatures. Either way, Itachi was out of time. Bad as Kisame was at finding chakra signatures over his own immense power, he would eventually lock on to Itachi's weakened signature. Sharks had the uncanny ability to sense blood in the water.

Glancing down at disgust at the Kyuubi container with the boy's resolutely blue eye staring up at him mockingly, the eyelid slowly making its way down to close, Itachi rose to his feet. It wasn't worth trying the procedure again, a waste even. Picking the boy up by his color with one hand, and gave his best attempt at a glare.

The original plan had to change. He couldn't count on Konoha to protect the boy anymore. The Kyuubi's safety without the Sharingan wasn't guaranteed with a potential traitor in Konoha.

The option to kill the boy was still open. It would take ten years for the Kyuubi to reform, delaying what he'd managed to uncover of Akatsuki's plans. In which time Konoha could prepare to deal with the organization's threat.

'_But that won't guarantee that Konoha will beat Akatsuki to wherever the Kyuubi reforms.'_

So the plan would change.

Itachi forced open the boy's right eye opened with his free hand. Channeling chakra into his sole remaining eye, the three tomoe began to rotate, blurring into a back circle. Building up the chakra, he molded the genjutsu to his will before releasing it into the boy's open eye.

'_Now for a voice imprint, to make it a command instead of a suggestion.'_

"Run." Itachi said imperiously, imprinting images into the boy's cornea, showing him where to flee. "Run and hide… cling to your life, survive and grow stronger. Return to Konoha when you have questions you can't answer."

Itachi released the boy, allowing the Jinchuuriki to collapse to the ground in a limp heap; completely unaware of the impact his decision – worded so much the same as when he had placed a similar genjutsu on his brother on the day he slaughtered his family - would have on the boy's psyche.

'_That should keep him from Konoha for a few months. Enough time for Konoha to root out the traitor.' _

Turning from the unconscious Container, Itachi began to crawl back through the tunnel, continually molding chakra as he wormed his way back towards the surface. Pulling himself out of the sanctuary, Itachi flipped through a few hand symbols, imbuing his summoning with his will and instructions, finishing on the sign of the bird. With a puff of smoke a raven took off into the sky, heading towards Konoha to deliver his message.

"Requesting back up? Eh, Itachi?" A deep baritone voice asked, from behind him.

"No." Itachi responded, turning to face his former partner. "Merely sending a last will and testimony."

Kisame stood a few yards away, his black Akatsuki robes with red clouds interwoven in a diagonal pattern billowing slightly in the breeze. His giant, gray, scaled sword slung carelessly over his right shoulder, blue skinned arm resting on the white, cloth-wrapped handle keeping it balanced.

His fish-like partner grinned a serrated toothed smile at his cornered prey. His black, beady eyes dancing with suppressed mirth.

"You were dealt a bad hand, Itachi. I've got orders to kill you."

Itachi shifted to a defensive stance. He couldn't fight so close to where the Kyuubi was stored. He wouldn't risk his safety.

"You won't find it so easy."

Kisame frowned, cocking his head slightly to the side, dark blue hair swinging over his mist headband.

"What happened to your eye?"

"Using Amaterasu has inconvenient side effects." Itachi replied. "I was forced to remove it."

"And not the other one?" Kisame asked, tilting his head to the other side, giving Itachi the impression of a shark/fish hybrid.

This line of questioning had to end before Kisame put the pieces together. His former partner may be a brute, but he was an uncommonly clever one.

"Prepare yourself, Kisame." Itachi warned, leaping backwards and flipping through signs for his fire jutsu.

"Whatever." Kisame said, shouldering his sword into a ready position. "We'll play this your way."

Surging chakra to his legs, Kisame leapt after his former partner while swinging his sword to shave him in half with his weapon's scales.

Itachi aborted his signing, ducking under the massive club of a weapon and placing his hand against Kisame's chest, molding his chakra with the intention to blow Kisame's lung through his spine.

The world went dark. He'd failed.

**Line Break**

Naruto awoke to a splitting headache. The sheer pain it caused seem like it was trying to bisect his brain with a rusty kunai. All he wanted to do was return to the fuzzy nothingness he'd been floating in before. The pain got worse. Naruto shifted and felt the rocky ground beneath him. Opening his eyes, the blacks and browns of the cave he was in blurred together in a swirling mess of awful.

He was in pain. Why was he in pain? He couldn't remember doing anything that would cause his this level of agony.

Naruto moaned plaintively into the muddled world he inhabited. It was a few minutes before he could muster the strength and mental willpower to sit up, the action causing the world to lurch dangerously.

'_Danger.'_ Naruto thought dully, his brain unable to form complete sentences or coherent thoughts at present.

The word drifted around in his head in search for something to connect to.

Naruto rose cautiously on unsteady feet, not entirely comfortable with how the cavern walls seemed to buck and sway with his motion. The action proved too much when his foot nudged a long, cylindrical object that had been resting near where his arm had been laying. Staggering slightly, he steadied his fall by grabbing onto a nearby rock; the rod clattering off and making his headache roar its angry disapproval. He fought down his rising nausea, tasting bile on his seemingly cotton coated tongue.

Once the world had taken on some reasonable semblance of sense, Naruto slumped in search of whatever he'd accidently kicked when he'd lost his footing.

'_Run.'_

The word drifted around in his head in search for something to connect with.

After a few minutes of fumbling in the dark he eventually cut his finger on something extremely sharp. Yelping in pained surprise which further aggravating his headache, Naruto leaped back while shoving his bleeding finger into his mouth on instinct, lost his footing, flailed his arms spectacularly for a few awkward seconds, and then finally collapsed on his back, driving the air forcefully from his lungs in a whoosh.

This time Naruto couldn't control his stomach. He barely managed to tilt his head to the left in time to avoid regurgitating all over himself. The viscous material was a slimy gray with a red tint to it.

Oddly, the expulsion made him feel better, bringing the world into a slightly more detailed picture. However, it was another several minutes before he attempted to move again.

'_Hide.'_

The word ambled its way through Naruto's mind searching for something to connect to as he rose with slightly steadier feet than before. Trudging over to where he'd cut himself, Naruto carefully picked up and examined the strange rod.

It was slightly longer than two feet, cool to the touch, fit perfectly in his hand, dark purple in color, and as far as Naruto's scattered mind could deduce, almost perfectly round except where it tapered to a point along one side where he'd cut himself.

He didn't have any place to store the strange object and was about to throw it away when a strange idea took hold. Twisting the rod around to that he held it in a reverse grip, he pressed the round, back half of the slender rod against his right elbow and triceps, where the length of material seemed to fade away.

It was then that the three words that had been bumbling around in his mind suddenly found each other and brought last night's misadventures into crystalline-like clarity.

Panic seized him, fear clutching at his chest with an icy-cold gauntlet. Naruto's eyes fervently darted around the dimly illuminated cave, linger longest on the walls that suddenly seemed much more menacing, casting dark shadows across the cavern where his attacker could be hidden and lying in wait. Bounding like a rabbit, Naruto lunged for the half-remembered crawlway, pressing his body through the portal with an animalistic craze.

'_They're in the walls!'_ His panicked mind screamed at him. Who 'they' were didn't matter, only that 'they' existed. '_They're in shadows, in the dirt and rock!.'_

Naruto ripped himself free from the exit and skittered across the ground, arms and legs flailing wildly in the grass that was still wet with morning dew.

'_They're in the trees! In the air and the sky!'_

Naruto bolted. His feet beating out a desperate rhythm as he pounded his way in the direction his genjutsu addled mind provided.

**Line Break**

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, sat at his desk, his stately red and white robes of office gathered around him in a defensive manner, pen scratching across the paper spread before him was the only sound to be heard in the office. If someone were to be breathing a bit heavier than normal, it would have seemed like a hurricane within the confined room.

The nib of the pen snapped suddenly, spreading ink across the sheet in a dark pool. Sarutobi calmly turned the pen upwards, so its contents couldn't reach the edges of the paper and spread onto his desk, and dropped it into the bin where it could join its six other predecessors.

With the casual ease only gained through practice, the Third Hokage rolled up the sheaf so that not a drop of ink was spilt and dropped it into the waste bit to join the expended pens. Pulling out a fresh piece of paper and a new pen, he calmly went back to work as if he weren't interrupted.

Being a Hokage was a tough job. He hadn't truly understood what he was getting into when he was elected and agreed to become the Third Hokage. He remembered his young and Naïve, thinking to himself '_It'll just mean a little more paperwork.'_ If it were possible, he'd go back in time and kick himself for being an idiot.

'_Right in the groin.'_ The professor thought morosely.

As he now knew, being Hokage was a difficult job. It was always made worse on this day, October Tenth. It was a special day where a select portion of Konoha could celebrate its bigotry and short sightedness. He'd received a report from one of his ANBU that Naruto was nowhere to be found. As far as Sarutobi was concerned that was perfectly fine. The boy would turn up some time tomorrow all smiles and cheer, making demands for ramen and generally enjoying what little he could eek out of his life.

It pained him that Naruto couldn't enjoy a regular life. But as the Hokage he couldn't show favoritism to anyone. Show favor to one and the rest will expect it as well. So Sarutobi did the best he could by setting the boy up with a small apartment and not asking questions when the boy didn't answer the customary 'how was your day today?' greeting.

'_His twelfth birthday, and he has to spend it hiding.'_ Sarutobi shook his head in agitation, almost breaking the nib of his pen again. '_Another six years before that seal wears off and can't hide Naruto's second largest secret, not even from himself.'_

Sarutobi's brooding was interrupted by a tapping noise at his window. Swiveling his chair around to face the window that looked out over his village, he spotted a raven perched on the sill.

"Shoo." Sarutobi commanded, waving his hands in a warding gesture at the bird.

The raven twisted its head so that it was glaring at him with his right eye. It blinked at him slowly and deliberately, once, twice, three times, then four times, then the raven turning to glare at him with the other eye and blinked for a final, fifth time before straightening its head to regard him coolly with both eyes.

Sarutobi's stomach dropped into an icy pit deeper than the ocean. Quickly rising from his chair, he hurried over to the pane of glass and clicked the latch into the unlocked position, swinging the window open wide to allow the raven in.

The creature entered with a series of hops and a quick wing flap to bring itself to rest on Sarutobi's desk while Sarutobi secured the window once more. Turning to face him it croaked, "I bring you a final message from my summoner."

Sarutobi hadn't thought it possible for the day to get any worse, but whatever twisted being that oversaw the cosmos apparently wanted to show him that it could.

Nodding numbly, Sarutobi gestured for the Summons to continue. The Raven twisted its head so that it could watch both the door and the Hokage at the same time before continuing.

"The message is short." The Raven warned. "There is only so much information you can will into a quick summons."

Sarutobi nodded again, this time impatiently. He already knew that and he wanted to skip to the important bit. Whatever the raven was going to say it was probably going to be bad. Nothing good had ever come of this particular day.

The raven bristled slightly, its fathers ruffling together in indignation at the impatience of humans, but delivered his message anyway.

"I'm sorry, Lord Hokage, but I have been betrayed by someone within Konoha who knows about my mission. Akatsuki has discovered my duplicity and has sent three missing ninja to kill me and retrieve the Jinchuuriki."

Sarutobi's loathing for October tenth had once again proven correct. He was about to reach for the button to summon his ANBU and have them active search for Naruto, but the raven was blocking the way.

"I have ensured the Jinchuuriki's well-being and hidden him away until he can't progress on his own. I am sorry that I was unable to do more, but-"

The raven stopped abruptly, hopped a few times on Sarutobi's work, cleared its throat, and then announced, "That's the end of the message. He didn't supply the jutsu with enough chakra to tell me more."

Sarutobi blinked.

"When will Naruto return?" He blurted, regretting the stupid question almost immediately.

The raven shrugged, an odd gesture coming from a bird. The effect was that it appeared to lift itself off the ground a few centimeters with its talons while spreading its wings slightly in a helpless gesture.

"Didn't say." The raven offered weakly. "I don't think Itachi knew himself. When I left him he was a bit… defeated by a blue man."

Sarutobi collapsed into his chair, like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Sorry, but I'm out of time." The raven informed the Hokage, and disappeared with a puff of smoke, out of chakra to sustain it.

Sarutobi's mind was racing with plans, ideas, and fears. He could send out search parties, but they would be slow and unresponsive, never mind the fact that they didn't even know where to begin searching. Konoha was a very large city as far as cities went. It's surrounding territory and unclaimed hills were even larger, spanning hundreds of miles in any direction. To search that amount of landmass with as few ninja that would go unnoticed by the other nations would take months, and an unaccountable amount of resources. Wherever Itachi had decided to send the boy, he would have been sure to make it an unconventional place to search. That only left a few million places in the Elemental Nations to check.

"When did everything get so muddled up and confused." Sarutobi asked, gazing at the picture of the Fourth Hokage that was hanging by his bookshelf against the adjacent wall.

The frame, for all it was worth sentimentally, didn't answer back. The picture depicting Fourth Hokage just hung there, the sole occupant grinning broadly at anyone who cared to take the time and look.

"I hope he returns before he's eighteen. If he doesn't, it's going to leave a lot of awkward questions to be answered. And I'm not the person to answer them. That was supposed to be your job." Sarutobi muttered to the picture, mind still wrestling with the problem of locating Naruto.

Eventually, Sarutobi decided that would have to trust Itachi's judgment. He didn't have any other choice in the matter. Things were already far too gone to change. Returning to his desk, he set aside the report he'd been authorizing before and pulled out a blank sheet of paper. He had a speech to prepare and explanations to give.

**Line Break**

The continuous rain of Ame pelted Pain's orange hair and many facial piercings with a dull indifference as he stared impassively up at the sky. His purple, concentric, eyes, pinpoint iris moved occasionally, as if searching the cloudy sky for an answer to the problem that had been plaguing him for the past two hours, ever since Kisame had returned and reported Itachi's death. Despite his divine eyes, he had yet to find an answer, without or within.

Itachi's betrayal was too soon. It was inevitable, planned even, that the Uchiha would return his services to Konoha. It was merely using him as you would a dangerous weapon, wait until the time was right to get replace it with a better, newer model.

'_Itachi wouldn't have purposefully leaked that he was a spy for the organization.'_ Pain thought slowly, turning the sentence over in his mind and examining it for any hidden properties.

'_He still hadn't weaseled out how to defeat us, and what our end goals are. So why would he-'_

Pain's musings were cut short when an Akatsuki member stepped out of the darkened doorway, stepping onto the same balcony that pain was perched on. His head was pulled up so that Pain couldn't see his face, but that hardly hide his identity. Madara, his partner, had come in to have a little chat.

"The Kyuubi is gone." Madara announced.

The eldest Uchiha's voice was dampened by the sound of the rain, yet it traversed the distance between to the two and made him understood.

"Itachi must have gotten to him first." Pain surmised.

"I underestimated the boy."

Pain nodded slowly, his orange hair rustling with damp.

"Kisame was successful." Pain reported. "The Kyuubi has no one to protect him now."

Madara grunted and turned to face away from Pain.

"Itachi will have hidden him well by now. We will search for the boy, of course, but we must be far more careful now. Itachi would have been sure to alert Konoha to our presence and what he knows of our intentions."

"Our informant-" Pain began only to be cut off by the oldest Uchiha.

"Is worse than useless now. Sarutobi is the student of the first and second. He will be far more vigilant about whom he trusts from now on."

Madara turned to face him.

"Which brings up the reason why I've come. We will have to keep a much shorter leash on our pawns from now on. Itachi was the first, but Orochimaru will not be far behind. His obsession with doujutsu led him to Itachi, and Itachi led him to us. To keep him we just have to give him a new one to chase."

Pain raised an orange eyebrow.

"Mine, I presume?"

Madara nodded slowly, the hood of his cloak beginning to sag with the weight of the rain.

"We can tease him with it during the next meeting." Madara continued. "Call a full member meeting, no illusions this time. Akatsuki will meet in person for the first time since its organization."

Pain didn't let his anxiety show in front of his partner. That many S-class ninja in one room was a bad idea. They may no longer be loyal to their villages, but certain sentiments were hard to toss away. If a fight were to break out, Akatsuki would be finished in the matter of a few hours.

As if sensing his unease, Madara commanded in a lower, more demanding voice.

"Do it."

And just like that, the Uchiha was gone, as if he'd never been standing in front of Pain to begin with.

Pain returned to his sky searching.

'_Things are getting out of hand.'_ Pain thought grimly. _'With the Kyuubi missing our plans are at a standstill. Ame is falling apart as it stands. We still need this place as a base of operation until we are ready to take our plan to the next stage.'_

Pain came to a grim conclusion.

He would become the God the people believed him to be. Religion would save them.

**Line Break**

"Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka called, looking over the top of his attendance list and surveying the crowd, trying to pick out the familiar mop of blond hair.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka called once more, completing his scan of his class.

No, shock of blond hair was to be seen anywhere amongst the sea of browns, blacks, and in the odd case, pink, purple and green.

"He isn't here." Kiba Inuzuka said, "He hasn't been here for a week, the lucky bastard."

Iruka nodded, putting another mark on the clipboard that he shared with the other teachers. Scanning down the list, they all had absent marks next to their names, so Naruto wasn't just avoiding Iruka's lectures in particular. No, the boy had just vanished off the face of the earth.

'_I'll have to stop by his apartment after work and see what's going on.'_ Iruka thought as he began his lecture. He'd given this same lesson to so many so many students, so many times, that he sometimes had dreams that one day a student would raise their hand and say, 'Umm, sensei, haven't you taught us this before?' and that would give him the excuse to mix things up a little. Who knows, maybe he could cajole Naruto into asking the question for him. Naruto would probably be happy for a change in pace. You just had to let slip a few buzzwords like trouble, attention, and ramen. Those kind of phrases brought Naruto in like a moth to a flame.

'_If the little twerp is just playing hooky, he'll never have to time to play a prank again.'_ Iruka thought, alarming his students with the sly grin creeping across their usually stoic teacher.

**Line Break**

Shikamaru was in his customary and highly patented attentive-student position, head down and eyes securely closed. The only downside to this position was that his ear was close to the table and he could hear every foot tap the students around him made as they went about their studies with all the due diligence of well-trained minds. It was a mind he had no interest in what so ever.

He'd done the mental exercises when he'd first entered the academy. He had calculated that he only needed to pay attention to the first half of each class to get the basics of each lecture in order to pass the easy questions on final exam. Quick, simple, and best of all, he could sleep; an activity that he couldn't seem to get enough of.

'_Kiba's gotten confused but refuses to ask for clarification' _A small, unused part of Shikamaru's brain that wasn't wholly occupied trying to sleep noted idly. Bored with its discovery, it began composing a lyrical accompaniment to go with the increased foot rhythm and anxious finger tapping that were coming from the Inuzuka's panicked noisemaking. Pleased with its previous laudable successes, that part of his mind went on to analyze everyone's breathing rate, guess at their body temperature, and as a final encore it speculated as to where Naruto might have decided to hide two weeks before graduation before growing bored and wandering off, not bothering to report its discoveries to the rest of his consciousness. It was far too troublesome.

Shikamaru, blissfully unaware of his untapped intellect's exploits and subsequent discoveries, continued to belabor Kiba's declining interest before finally passing out early.

Had Shikamaru been awake, he might have been interested to learn what three techniques would be required along with a written test to graduate, but then again, maybe not.

**Line Break**

Uchiha were never taken by surprise because they were always aware and in control of their surroundings. Uchiha were never in a position of discomfort because they were secure in the knowledge that their bloodline was superior and thus the doings of inferior creatures could have no ill effect on them. Uchiha were never uncertain or confused as to their course of actions because ultimately they would act in the best interest of their clan.

Sasuke Uchiha tried to remember these teachings as he stood in the middle of the bustling crowd that was jostling their way up to the front of the Hokage Tower. In fact, he recited them over and over in his head like a mantra to maintain the characteristic calm of his family.

There had been a rumor, no more than a whisper spoken in hushed voices in the corners of the streets that had started a week ago and had since grown like wildfire to be heralded at the top of everyone's voice and trumpeted from the rooftops.

Itachi Uchiha, the butcher of the Uchiha clan, was dead.

Sasuke had shrugged the story off as an old wives tale or the wishful thinking of ignorant civilians. He'd suffered through people rushing up to him in the streets to tell him the good news. He'd endured their naiveté and idiocy in the firm belief that the rumors would soon be crushed by his brother, who'd show up and do something horrendously spectacular, like slaughter a small town or two just to prove that he wasn't dead.

Then the Hokage had called a village meeting. He hadn't specified what the meeting was about, but everyone had his or her own theories, most of them concerning the supposedly late Itachi.

So here Sasuke stood, uncomfortably juxtaposed between to rambling buffoons conversing with each other on what 'The Lord Hokage had called the meeting for' and 'I bet it was because that Itachi person is dead.'

'_Fools. My brother is one of the strongest this village has ever produced. He wouldn't die so quickly after… leaving, for four years. No one can kill him but me'_ Sasuke thought scathingly, pushing a hand through his mess of black hair in agitation. Their wanton ignorance reminded him of that blond idiot in his class, Naruto. '_He hasn't been in class this past week. Thank God for small miracles. It's been blessedly quiet._

Sasuke squinted at where the Hokage Tower stood. Channeling a bit of chakra to his eyes and ears just as he'd been taught, Sasuke was able to bring the Hokage's podium into sharp detail.

The Hokage was standing a few feet behind where he would be eventually be delivering his speech, conversing with one of the ANBU, an intent expression on his face. The Hokage nodded once, gesturing slightly with his hand. With a small swirl of leaves the ANBU vanished. Sasuke watched the Hokage turn to face the podium, glare at it for a moment, then slowly approach it with a great amount of trepidation on his face. Once at the speaking platform, the Hokage placed both aged hands down beside the microphone.

"Good people of Konoha." The Hokage greeted the roar of the crowd with a slight wave and plastering what Sasuke could see was an attempt at a cheerful smile. The crowd ate it up.

'_They don't know any better. They don't know HIM.'_ Sasuke told himself vehemently. '_They don't know how powerful Itachi is. They only think of him as a strong ninja, something else. They're all going to be so surprised when the Hokage tells them that they were wrong, that Itachi is still alive.'_

Once the cheering finally died down, the Hokage resumed.

"Good people of Konoha. I bring you joyous news."

'_What?' _Sasuke thought, a tingle of disbelief creeping its way up his spine.

"Itachi, infamous traitor of Konoha, the young man who murdered his own family in cold blood… is dead!"

The expectant roar that tore from the crowd was deafening. They jumped, and screamed, and cheered, and generally expressed an opinion they knew nothing about. All they knew and cared about was that a threat to their security and well-being was gone. And Sasuke couldn't believe it.

"His hide-out was found just outside of Konoha's borders, where we martialed our elite ninja and took him by surprise. It was a long and difficult battle, but the traitor was eventually slain. We may now rest easy at night-"

Sasuke tuned the Hokage out as he numbly turned to leave the center square. His esteemed leader wasn't going to provide any of the details that Sasuke wanted, such as where, when, how was it done. Those details would doubtlessly be strictly classified, and far above Sasuke's nonexistent pay grade.

Turning down an adjacent street, Sasuke began the short trek to his apartment. He had refused to live in his clan's compound. The ghosts of his family lay underneath every floorboard, behind each door. They crouched in the rafters, watching him constantly with their cold, dead eyes. A small apartment seemed like a palace compared to that nightmare he'd escaped.

Ascending the flight of stairs to his complex, Sasuke spanned the distance between the staircase and room 303 with a steady stride. He inserted the key into the door, rotating it until he heard the familiar click. Pressing firmly on the door, it ground open slowly on rusty hinges. With a door as nosy as his, he would never be ambushed inside his own home.

Stepping inside and flipping the light switch with an indifferent gesture bringing shuddering illumination to his dingy hovel. His home.

Unbuttoning his kunai pouch, Sasuke slung it over onto the overstuffed sofa where it bounced off as if the sofa were a trampoline and not a recliner where it landed on the floor with a clinking clunk.

"Forget it." Sasuke said aggravated, waving a dismissive hand at where his weapon's pouch and landed. Instead of going over and doing the job proper, Sasuke opted to step past the small kitchenette and enter his bedroom where kicked off his shoes in the corner and then collapsed face first onto the mattress with a grunt.

"Stupid mattress." Sasuke said weakly into the comforter, slapping the pillow in retribution.

'_Why do I feel so drained?'_ Sasuke wondered sluggishly. '_I haven't actually done anything today, just endured Iruka's continuous diatribe. As taxing as that is, it shouldn't have this kind of effect on me. I need my energy if I'm ever going to defeat Itachi.'_

Sasuke stood suddenly, shaking off his lethargy. He had things to do and resting was not one of them. Quickly rolling out of bed and dropping to the floor, Sasuke began doing pushups. They were simple enough that he could think and be productive at the same time, two birds with one stone.

'_Itachi won't be passive. He'll be out there, growing stronger.'_

Sasuke froze mid-pushup, his eyes widening as the Hokage's announcement finally took hold.

Itachi was dead.

He'd heard the rumors and dismissed them with the brutal skepticism pounded into him by his future profession. He'd heard his Hokage and hadn't believed him. Why? There was no reason to doubt his leader.

Sasuke's eyes darted from side to side as he worked through the problem, still holding the pushup.

'_Lord Hokage has nothing to gain by lying about Itachi's death. He isn't in a bad position politically. He's been ruling for the past thirty-some-odd-years. If anything, he'd want to step down and pass off the responsibility to someone else. He has no reason to lie about Itachi's death.'_

The last two words of that sentence pounded around in his head, smashing through all other thoughts and concerns with the indifference of a boulder. Itachi was dead.

Sasuke pushed himself into a sitting position, crossing his legs over each other and resting his chin in his right hand, using his right leg for support to better think about this recent development.

Itachi was dead.

Avenging his clan and slaying Itachi had been his goal, his driving force. It consumed his entire being and gave him purpose. Every action he'd taken was to further himself and sanctify his clan name once more. Now that someone else had taken that goal from him.

Someone had taken away his ambition. His goal. His purpose. His life. They had taken it right out from beneath him, and he hadn't even known until an old man in a frilly robe announced it to the public.

Sasuke's brow furrowed as an unspeakable anger consumed his entire being. His slender frame began to quake with its force. His finger began beating out an aggravated tune while his mind churned.

It was a mistaken belief that Uchiha were dispassionate killers, stone cold and clinical in their execution. If anything, it was the opposite. The Uchiha were taught from a very young age to control their rampant emotions, to hide behind a façade of indifference.

Uchiha were beings of glory and temper, like an unbridled storm. They worked the hardest, played with a fervor that would make a priest jealous and hated with a ferocity that could shatter mountains. But most importantly they loved with a passion that if tested could shift the planet on its axis in a moment.

'_What do I do now?'_

Sasuke asked himself, his body suddenly growing cold and clammy. Without his revenge, without his hate and twisted love of his brother, what was he? He had no direction. He was a sailor in a storm without a compass on a broken ship, his stars taken by clouds and God's unending fury.

Sasuke stood and mechanically made his way to the kitchen to make himself a tomato sandwich. It was his comfort food, and now for the first time in a long while, he needed comfort. Reaching into his refrigerator and pulling out a few round, red orbs of deliciousness, Sasuke set them on the counter, deftly drew a knife from the stand and set into his tomatoes. It was at times like this that his ninja training had practical applications, allowing him to slice through his lunch with a speed that would make a professional chef envious, not that Sasuke care in the slightest.

Tomatoes cut, bread on the table, a quick assembly, and now a completed sandwich sat before him. All pretty and glittering with accomplishment.

Sasuke stared at the sandwich as if it had all the answers he was looking for. And for once in that phrases many uses, the sandwich actually did hold the answers he was looking for.

A slight smile quirked at the edge of Sasuke's mouth, twisting and growing as the thought grew into an idea, and then into a passion.

'_If I can't beat Itachi in life…'_ Sasuke thought slowly. '_Then I'll defeat him in death. I'll create such a legend of myself that Itachi will be nothing more than a footnote on the page of my accomplishments.'_

Sasuke wolfed down the sandwich with predator like efficiency, plans and goals, possibilities and eventualities, dancing in his mind.

He would become the strongest ninja ever to have walked the face of the planet, bar none.

**Line Break**

Sasuke blinked. His room was gone, replaced with what appeared to be the insides of a stable, except that there were no horses in sight. Their droppings, however, were all too visible. They also stank.

He wrinkled his nose at the stench while carefully picking his way over to the doors, Sasuke pushed on the wooden plank that secured the two doors together. The beam hit the hay-covered ground with a muffled thump, allowing him to pass through. As the doors swung open, Sasuke was forced to close his eyes against the bright sun that hung high in the air.

He tried to channel chakra to his eyes to accelerate their adjustment, but to his alarm he found nothing in the place his chakra should have been. Where there once burned the source of his power, he found nothing. Batting back his fear Sasuke tried to focus his mind, letting his emotions get the better of him wouldn't serve him well at present. Calm and collected, that was the Uchiha way.

Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he peered out of the barn where he'd found himself. At present his best theory was that someone, or _someones,_ was playing an annoying elaborate joke on him. At least one of them is probably a ninja. His chakra supply was cut off and this was almost certainly a genjutsu.

'_It's the best one I've ever seen'_ Sasuke mused to himself as he watched people moved through the streets, going about their day-to-day business with the calm assurity that nothing could harm them. All upper academy students were exposed to a variety of genjutsu to get the acclimated to experience, and hopefully spot what separated reality from illusion.

"This is where it began." Sasuke nearly jumped out of his skin when the baritone voice spoke behind him. Spinning on his heel while cursing his dampened senses, Sasuke turned to face the man who'd managed to sneak up on him. What struck him first about the man standing in front of him was that he was completely remarkable in that he was entirely uninteresting to look it.

He wasn't particularity tall, nor was he particularly short. He had wild, white hair – odd because he didn't appear to be older than thirty - kept back by a headband that had two horn like protuberances on either side of a blank, metal plate. It also doubled in that hid his eyes from view. He was dressed in dark green samurai armor that Sasuke suspected he might have seen in a museum at some point, an academy field trip of some nature.

"Where what began?" Sasuke asked, intrigued despite himself. He didn't trust whatever construction was, genjutsu or otherwise.

"The end, as horribly morbid and overdone that phrase is." The figure said.

Sasuke remained duly unimpressed by the figures bravado.

The figure pointed out the door. Following his finger, Sasuke looked in the direction he was indicating where there was a small black dot way up on the horizon.

"What is-" Sasuke began, but stopped as there was a visual pulse of power and the black dot vanished.

Sasuke blinked, at a loss to explain the phenomena.

An explosion tore the buildings just in front of him apart, sending shrapnel and bodies flying in the air. An earsplitting female scream rent the air for a moment, only to be overwhelmed completely by a roar Sasuke could feel vibrate in his chest.

Ten, long, black tails crept over the roofs of the remaining buildings like snakes over a rock.

"I'm sorry, but, in the end, I failed like my predecessors did."

Naruto turned to face the man had come up to standing behind him. The light from outside was illuminating his face enough to reveal his purple eyes with black, concentric rings, staring out at the creature. It reminded Sasuke a bit of both the Byakugan and Sharingan. Although it was dissimilar enough to not be either of them.

"I failed to completely stop the creature. The fragment of a God. I entrusted the task to my two sons. But I also cast out a message. A shot in the dark, really, but it was all I could manage. Ruin takes us all."

**Line Break**

Sasuke shot bolt upright, his eyes fluttering open, desperately flitting around the room. His room. He was in his apartment. He'd fallen asleep after his workout.

Blearily Sasuke rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his vision and get his bearings.

_It was a dream, all just a dream,_ he thought, rising to his feet while kicking off the sheets.

Once free of his bed linen, Sasuke stepped into his kitchen, ran himself a glass of water, and gulped it down eagerly. After another three glasses, he was finally satisfied enough to run a hand through his sweat sodden hair.

The image of those twisted tails still stuck vividly in his mind.

'_Today's events have messed with my head.'_

Sasuke shook his head vigorously, trying to clear the phantasm from his imagination. The creature had ten tails, yet history made no mention of a beast like that. The Kyuubi only had nine, and it was the strongest of the tailed beasts. His overactive was playing tricks on him. Itachi's death must have been affecting him more than he thought. He'd get over it. Just like he'd gotten over everything else in his life: by ignoring it until it went away.

**Line Break**

Sarutobi had finished his speech and was now making his way home where he had every intention of kicking back, having a smoke, maybe a glass of wine, and passing out for the evening. The last week had been one of the most stressful one's of his entire career.

He'd fabricated evidence to support Itachi's death. Spread rumors. Overseen reports to support his story. And retired ninja –voluntarily - to secluded sections of Konoha, where no one of significance would ever see them. All to make the world believe that one man had died, which presumably, he had. It was just that no one would ever find the body.

Sarutobi stopped in the middle of the road, just outside the light cast by the nearest lamp.

"I don't suppose that this is just a chance meeting, is it Danzō?"

The soft click of a cane impacting on cobblestone reverberated in the evening silence. Sarutobi often wondered why he carried the aid. Danzō as a retired ninja and current councilman was perfectly capable of movement without it.

The aged veteran emerged from a nearby street, his customary white undershirt and black robe over the top, covering from his feet to just over his right shoulder. The robe concealed his right arm that he kept bandaged and covered with three big, golden braces to hide his disfigurement, a testament to the war they both were involved in.

"Where is the Kyuubi?" Danzō asked, foregoing any pleasantries between the two and cutting straight to the point.

Sarutobi's eyes narrowed imperceptivity. Was Danzō the traitor? He dismissed the idea almost as soon as it had occurred to him. Danzō was many things, black hearted, callous, and lacking a moral compass that pointed anywhere, but he wasn't a traitor. Konoha's safety and continued strength was what dictated his every action. He lived, breathed, and fought for Konoha for his entire life. He wouldn't have betrayed them now.

"I remained quiet while you dealt with Itachi's affairs. I'd lost interest in him long ago when he could no longer serve." Danzo continued. "However, the Kyuubi was Konoha's ultimate weapon. The boy held the most powerful of the Bijuu and has the potential to become the tool that would lead Konoha to greatness, if only you had let me handle him."

Sarutobi didn't miss the fact that Danzo referred to Naruto in the past tense.

"Was?" Sarutobi asked. "Do you know something I don't?"

Danzō clicked his cane in impatience.

"Do not play dumb with me, Sarutobi. It doesn't suite you."

"Itachi sent away the Kyuubi before he died." Sarutobi answered honestly. "He's hidden the boy."  
Danzō continued to click his cane in thought for a few moments, studying Sarutobi intently with his single eye.

"Why would Itachi hide away the Kyuubi where it can't be trained?"

"I do not believe that he intends for _Naruto_ to be gone long." Said Sarutobi, stressing the child's name.

Danzō just shook his head, amazed with his leaders foolishness.

"Your sentimentality for the boy will be your undoing."  
The old councilman turned and walked back the way he came, his cane's echoing reverberating from the alleyway before vanishing altogether.

This encounter had cemented Sarutobi's feelings on how to approach the issue Naruto's disappearance had presented him. Depending on how long the child was gone, it would be best that the world simply forgot the kid's existence. If the child was gone for a week, then Naruto had been playing hooky. If the kid was gone for a two weeks, then Naruto was sick. If Naruto were gone for a month, then the story would change to being very sick, flu or something. If Naruto was gone for longer than a year… well, it'd be best if the other nations assumed that Konoha had at long last militarized the Demon Container in secret, and for Konoha to forget about the child's existence at all. Of course, many would remember. The older generation and a great deal of the middle aged. But hopefully, the young would never know and the rest wouldn't be able to put a changed Naruto together with the old.

Naruto, as Konoha would have known and remembered him, will have died.

It was for the best, after all.

'_Hopefully Naruto will return soon.'_ Sarutobi thought longingly. '_I miss the child's cheerful demands for ramen already.'_

**End of Chapter One**

**A/N: Well, there it is. I hope it came out a sixteenth as entertaining on paper as it was in my head. Toss me a review if you liked it. That, more than anything, tells me that it's worth continuing.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I made the mistake of reading 'The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy' before writing this chapter. I may have muddled his writing style and my own together a bit .**

**It did, however, give me the chance to work on my narrator. I also had a few issues with PoV changes. I hope it doesn't bother anyone.**

**Also, there as going to be quite a few elements that'll make you believe Naruto is weak. He isn't. Emotionally and mentally, yes. Combat wise, no.**

**I also did my best to avoid what I call 'general bashing.' By this I mean that the entire village, ninja and civilian alike, all hate Naruto. Sure, there will be people and more than a few groups that still hate him. But after the time skip, six years, a lot of people will have moved on and forgotten about Naruto. I'll do my best to explain it better in the chapter, partly because it's a bit difficult to explain, but mostly because I don't want to want to take up your time with this silly A/N. **

"You're a sword not a palm tree"

― Brandon Sanderson

**Chapter Two**

**Muddled and Confused**

_It was only natural that I discovered chakra when I did. Indeed, it couldn't have occurred at any other time. Furthermore, anyone could have become what I am now. I just drew the cosmological short draw._

_- _Rikudou Sennin – _Annex of the Past_

**Six Years Two Weeks Later**

Izumo and Kotetsu, life long bachelors of such a high degree that if you took the time to look up the word 'bachelor' in a dictionary, you'd find their names in small print labeled in a tight, neat script with references to 'hopeless' and 'bland', sat under the stone pavilion reserved for ninja who ascribed to the most mightiest of callings: protecting Konoha's civilian's from trespassers. This is, of course, a grand way of saying that they were instructed to sit down for hours at a time and record visitors, check passports, and entertain everyone and anyone who bothered to go in or out of Konoha, making sure to be cheerful and courteous at all times.

It wasn't the most glamorous or thrilling of jobs, but such a job was always in demand. The protection or destruction of things was a ninja's prerogative, after all. The funny thing about a ninja's profession was that the more of one you had, the more you needed of the other and vice-versa.

Thus far the day had been rather drab for the duo. It wasn't a holiday and the morning civilian traffic had already passed. Jounin with their students weren't due to be leaving for their daily missions for another few hours.

"This is the life isn't it, Izumo?"

Izumo glanced over at where his fellow gate guard was sprawled out in his chair, rubbing his bandaged covered nose, black mane of spiky hair hanging limply from his backwards-reclined head like stalactites.

"I suppose." Izumo responded after a few moments glaring at his companion, wishing that he would at least try and look attentive. Traffic may have been slow, but that was no reason to be negligent.

"No need to be anywhere or do anything." Kotetsu continued as if he hadn't heard the reproach in his friend's voice. "Just coasting, easy. Wouldn't give this job up for anything."

Izumo frowned and adjusted his green jounin jacket to a more presentable, if slightly less comfortable, position. Shooting another glance at Kotetsu, Izumo was forced to repress the urge to straighten his friend's as well.

_Honestly, _Izumo thought, '_If he only conducted himself with a little more dignity, he might get that pay raise he's been moaning about for the past month.'_

Kotetsu opened his right eye lazily at gazed at the road, raising a brow in a silent question.

"Oh?" He asked of nobody in particular.

"What?" Izumo asked, following his Kotetsu's gaze.

A figure dressed in a black hoodie and neon orange cargo pants was walking up the main path towards Konoha. The traveler had his hood pulled up so that at this distance the only thing that they could make out were a few spikes of blond hair poking out in an unruly pattern.

Izumo frowned again, glancing down at the ledger in front of him. A brief scan of the page revealed what he had suspected. No one was scheduled to be arriving at this time today. Unexpected guests weren't unwelcome to Konoha, the leaders just liked to know they were coming first.

"Did any patrols send word that we were to expect company while I was asleep?" Kotetsu asked, straightening up in his chair.

"No." Izumo replied.

"Either he was unlucky and slipped through the nets or…" Kotetsu let his words hang in the air.

Izumo didn't need for him to finish the sentence. Either the traveler had managed to slip pass through the patrolling network by a colossal amount of bad luck or he wasn't a traveler at all.

'_One person wouldn't be able to do much.'_ Izumo reasoned sensibly. '_Even a Hokage can't hope to take on an entire village alone.'_

The figure had now drawn close enough for the two gate guards to get a better look. The boy was about eighteen, had light-blue eyes, strong cheekbones, and most peculiarly of all, three birthmarks on either side of his face that gave him the strange appearance of having whispers. If it hadn't been for the last characteristic, both Izumo and Kotetsu would have sworn that their long deceased leader, the Fourth Hokage, was making his way towards them as if he'd simply been on an eighteen year walk.

"Well if that just don't beat all?" Kotetsu asked.

"Hmm." Izumo agreed, not wanting to say anything further until the guest had arrived to explain himself.

At the slow pace the figure was cutting his way up the path with it took several minutes before he was standing at their booth.

'_He's certainly not very threating.'_ Izumo mused, taking in the anxious way the figure was pulling at the drawstrings of the hoodie, a worried expression plastered over his face.

'_He looks like he's trying to burry himself in the fabric.'_ Kotetsu observed.

Breaking himself from his impolite inspections, Izumo picked up his pencil and looked the guest in the eyes, causing the boy to avert his own, and said in his clipped, professional voice, "I'll need your name, hometown, and passport, if you please."  
"Umm." The boy said uncertainly, his voice barely above a whisper forcing Izumo to strain his ears to hear, eyes desperately looking anywhere but at Izumo's own.

"Forgot it, kid?" Kotetsu asked playfully. "Don't be shy, we won't bite."

Izumo resisted the urge to throttle his partner.

"Naruto Uzumaki." The blond said.

Izumo made the appearance of checking the schedule, already knowing that the boy's name wasn't on it.

'_The name seems familiar though, as if I should remember it for some reason.'_ Izumo thought distractedly, being sure to keep his attention on the unexpected guest.

"You're not on the incoming list." Izumo said, looking up.

The boy stared at the ground intently, brows furrowed.

"Missing persons?" He suggested quietly after a moment's thought.

Izumo's curiosity was aroused now. What would a missing person be doing checking in at the front gate as if he'd been out on holiday?

"Ahh." Kotetsu said affably, rubbing the back of his head. "Give me a sec. I left it in the back."

Izumo resisted the desire to murder his partner again. Two times before lunch, Kotetsu was on a roll.

Kotetsu stood and disappeared into the back of the stone building, where he could be heard rummaging through a box for a few moments before he cried out in success.

"Aha!" Kotetsu crowed, reappearing at the doorway holding a brown clipboard. "Left it under tonight's dinner."

Resuming his seat, Kotetsu cheerfully dropped back into his seat, plunking the clipboard on the desk in front of him. Flicking towards the back of the sheet, he murmured, "Uzumaki…. Uzumaki…" as he moved his finger down the list, looking for the name. His finger stopped and Kotetsu frowned, furrowed his brows, stood up and walked back into the back without saying anything.

Izumo grew rather worried. His friend wasn't often serious, reserving that side of himself for combat. For him to suddenly become serious and quiet… Izumo turned and stared at the nervously fidgeting blond, watching his every move for anything suspicious.

**Line Break**

Sarutobi was reclining in his office, feet up on the table, smoking pipe in hand, and perfectly content to ignore the small stack of paperwork propped neatly at the corner of his desk, confident that it'll sort itself out on its own at some point. The stack of paper was just reports on the past three days civilian trafficking that needed his looking over anyways.

_I might just have Choji look that over in my stead, _Sarutobi mused, puffing on his pipe and eyeing the sheaves of parchment with a critical eye. _He's become such a fine boy and an excellent ninja since Jiraiya took him in as his apprentice. It's a rather good thing that the lad has thus far proven immune to my student's…interests; else I think that Ino girl might have ended them both._

"Excuse me, Lord Hokage." Came the familiar, female voice of his secretary from the speaker installed at the right hand of his desk.

Sarutobi glared at it. It wasn't her fault that she was interrupting his introspective time. She wasn't even aware that he was busying himself with not being busy. No, Sarutobi's anger was directed at the small bit of plastic, metal, and electronic circuitry currently spluttering at him.

He'd had it installed to lessen the number of people going in and out of his doors by being able to politely turn them away without having to face them. However, because he world was so clever, he now had to endure the apparatuse's static squawks instead.

"Kotetsu is reporting that there is a flagged missing persons at the front gate."

Sarutobi stopped glaring at it, instead adopting a more interested expression.

"Naruto Uzumaki, missing six years-"

The Third Hokage didn't bother to listen to the rest of the message. He had already vanished in a swirl of leaves.

**Line Break**

Inoichi Yamanaka, expert in the use of his clan's mental penetration abilities, was having what he considered to be a perfectly normal weekend. He was reclined in a sunny spot in his back yard garden, had his feet up, head back, and something lovely in his right hand whose name he'd forgotten quite some time ago.

That had all changed when his Hokage had, rather rudely he thought, appeared nine feet away, spreading Shunshin leave all throughout his well-groomed garden. His daughter, Ino, was not going to be pleased. She was the one who kept the patches of dirt in pristine condition after all.

"I need your help." The Third Hokage said, a rather maniacal gleam in his eye.

Inoichi tried to smile comfortingly, failed, tried again, failed again, and then gave it up as a bad joke.

"Stress of the job finally gotten to you, My Lord?" Inoichi asked in what he hoped was a joking tone.

"No time now." The Hokage said stiffly. "I need your expertise, now."

Normally Inoichi wouldn't have argued with his supreme ruler. Indeed, he would have leaped out of his chair and saluted his commander, following him where he wanted to go. Unfortunately, today he'd had rather a lot of whatever it was he was drinking and so wasn't thinking entirely clearly.

"Can't my daughter do it?" He asked, offering his daughter up as a sacrifice instead of himself. "I'm on my vacation and I don't-"

He didn't get any farther as the elderly Hokage had stepped forward while reaching into his robes, pulled out a small green pill, and shoved it unceremoniously into Inoichi's slurring mouth, forcing him to swallow.

The name of the drink had suddenly come back to him now, Gresgadarion.

'_Oh no,'_ Inoichi thought. _'Gresgadarion.'_

Gresgadarion is a rather potent, alcoholic, drink imported from Kumo, whose contents are a closely and jealously guarded secret. The effects of drinking said liquor is best described as: Having your common sense and good manners taken away from you by a flying, purple, spirit, and replaced by a good time and happiness.

The substance had caused quite some stir in surrounding countries, not to mention Kumo itself, because once taken in, the body had a hell of a time getting it back out. A single bottle of Gresgadarion took three days to flush itself out of the system, leaving you poorer, unhappy, and sick to your stomach for two days.

The drink had become wildly unpopular because of these side effects until Tsunade Senju, infamous alcoholic and gambler, invented a remedy that solved most of the aforementioned problems.

It was this pill that Sarutobi had shoved down his throat, bringing both unhappiness and a sickly feeling to his stomach just a little bit sooner than it would have ordinarily have done.

"Feeling better?" Sarutobi asked, looming over him ominously.

"That's one way to describe it." Inoichi replied queasily.

"Good." Said the Hokage mercilessly, lifting Inoichi up by his left and arm and slung the sickly Yamanaka over his shoulder.

"I would have gotten Ino under any other circumstances. However, you are the only one for this job."

"Okie dokie." Inoichi replied breezily, not really in any condition to argue further.

"You'll feel better by the time we get there." Sarutobi assured the blond haired mind reader draped unceremoniously on his back.

Inoichi grunted and immediately hated himself for the sound. He sounded far too much like that jutsu-stealing prick, Sasuke, for his liking.

'_Never understood what my little princess saw in that little bastard when she was younger.'_ Inoichi thought as the flopped on the Hokage's shoulder as his esteemed leader huffed him along towards their destination. _'At least she's seen sense and wound up with a much better match, though no one will ever be good enough for my little girl.'_

"Keep still." The Hokage chided him. "And listen up. I have a great deal to tell you and little time to explain."

**Line Break**

Izumo and Kotetsu eyed the blond from where they sat safely behind their desks. The boy hadn't moved a finger beyond turning his face into the wind, a small grin tugging at the edge of his lips.

"Do you think he'll snap?" Kotetsu asked in a low voice so that only Izumo could hear.

"Do you think it'll matter?" Izumo replied in his regular voice. "He's what? Eighteen?"

"So?" Kotetsu asked, eyeing the blond boy. "He looks crazy. I don't do well with crazy people."

Izumo opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted the Hokage appearing, the head of the interrogation department standing next to him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted that Naruto's attention had locked firmly on their lord. Izumo didn't like the haunted, longing look in the boy's eyes.

"Is Inoichi feeling alright?" Kotetsu asked, leaning in to whisper to Izumo.

"Shhh." Izumo chided his partner.

**Line Break**

Sarutobi stared at the boy standing stiffly a dozen yard away, gazing at him with an expression he couldn't quite identify. Was it despair, longing, hatred, or was it fear?

"Hey, grandpa." The young man said, pulling on the drawstrings on his hood causing the fabric to cover his eyes, leaving only the tips of his spiky bangs to stick out.

"Naruto." The Hokage said softly, only managing to hold himself back because he couldn't be sure of the boy's mental state, thus the reason why he brought the Yamanaka clan leader.

It was protocol that any missing-ninja, trainee or not, be thoroughly examined before they were admitted back into Konoha. And as much as he wanted to run over and embrace the boy, there was little doubt that the last six years had changed the brash boy he remembered. The man in front of him seemed to be trying to vanish into himself as much as was physically possible without actually moving, the feint air of fear clinging to the boy like a desiccated husk.

Inoichi, for his part, was trying to remember where he'd heard the name 'Naruto' before. It seemed highly familiar, as if he should have remembered it, or it had been of great importance once.

Speaking out of the corner of his mouth, Sarutobi asked the recently recovered Yamanaka, "First impressions?"

"Hard to say." Inoichi replied, eyeing the blond with a clinical eye. "He seems to be exhibiting signs of anthrophobia if the way he keeps withdrawing into his hood is any indication. However, the way he had his eyes closed before we arrived in the presence of the gate guards doesn't fit. A mild form of panophobia, possibly agoraphobia?"

Sarutobi nodded slowly.

"Naruto, would you mind following us?" Sarutobi asked, being sure to keep his voice gentle. He'd dealt with ninja who'd suffered from these conditions on the battlefield before. The Third Great War had done more than shatter families. It had also shattered minds. And since Naruto turned eighteen a few days ago, Sarutobi had no doubt that Naruto's mind was a whirl of confusion.

Naruto peeked out from under his hood and nodded.

Relieved, Sarutobi turned and began walking towards one of the many abandoned safe houses scattered around Konoha that were kept in good condition at all times should the city ever be attacked.

It only took the trio a few minutes before they reached the none-descript house. For all appearances it looked like an unused summer home, complete with a tubby, red gnome on the front lawn and garishly colored awning over the front porch.

Walking up and placing his hand on the doorknob, being careful to channel chakra into the seal engraved on the inside of the knob, Sarutobi opened the door with a click as the lock slid out of the way and lead the two trailing behind him inside.

Once the two blonds following him were safely inside, Sarutobi shut the door and ushered them silently towards the kitchen table. They only needed the silencing seals placed over the house, not the food and weapon cache hidden under the rug in he living room next door.

No, the table would do fine. They were only going to have a conversation and quick jaunt around Naruto's memories.

Once they were all situated around the table, Naruto had been very careful to situate himself with a view of the door, Sarutobi turned to the young man and asked, "Do you know why we are here?"

Naruto hesitated before nodding slowly, pulling the strings on his hoodie and vanishing again. Sarutobi frowned at the boy's apparent nervousness. The Naruto he used to know had been replaced by this shadow of a human being trying desperately to appear at ease in the corner.

"You need to look into my mind." Naruto said softly, edging backwards slightly in his seat.

"Yes." Sarutobi said gently, nodding slowly. "We need to make sure that you haven't been influenced by other villages."

"I know." Naruto whispered, peek out at the Hokage, studiously ignoring the other blond in the room. "But tell him to be careful. My mind isn't safe."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow in surprise. The boy believed that he had enough mental defense to detect a professional Yamanaka at work? Or was it… The name Uzumaki finally clicked.

"Kyuubi." Inoichi whispered before he could catch himself. He had no ill will towards the boy. He was able to discern between a kunai and a sheath, as any decent ninja was able to.

He was amazed with himself that it had taken this long to recognize the boy. The truth was without the constant reminder the boy's presence instilled most of the village had moved on. The pranks the kid had pulled without discrimination had only further increased the population's dislike and resentment for him. Sure, there had been quite a bit of concern once the village finally noticed his disappearance, but then the Hokage had assured them that they were safe and the Kyuubi had been sent away for private training. Apparently that hadn't quite been the truth.

Sarutobi glanced at him critically, shooting him a withering glare to silence him. Returning his attention back to the boy he was relieved to see that Naruto didn't seem to have heard, having busied himself with picking at his pants pocket.

"Are you ready?" Sarutobi asked.

Naruto nodded silently, still picking at his pants pocket.

Inoichi, adopting the same voice that his Hokage had been using with the boy, leaned forwards slightly, being very careful not to appear threatening and said, " For this I'll need to touch your head."

Naruto froze for a second, a slight, almost unnoticeable tremble running through his body before nodding slowly. Reaching up and slowly pulling off his hood, Sarutobi was surprised to see that the spikes he'd assumed as the long spikes on the top of his head as a youth were actually just his poorly cut bangs that poked around at odd angles for the front, the rest of it pooled down in a long blond stream into his jacket where it vanished into the darkness.

Hood down, Naruto leaned forward and tentatively presented his head.

Inoichi glanced at his leader for permission. Receiving a nod, Inoichi reached out with his right hand and placed it on the boy's hair, pressing down firmly to reach his skull.

"Ready?" Inoichi asked, holding up a fist with his left hand, two fingers extended in a half sheep sign.

"Yes." Naruto said softly.

"Good." Inoichi sad stiffly, channeling chakra through both his hands, using the tiger to symbol to balance his chakra, and entered the boy's mind.

**Line Break**

Sarutobi stared intently as he felt Inoichi's spike in chakra. He was taking a big risk sending the Yamanaka clan leader into Naruto's mind, but he was left with few options otherwise.

The boy had obviously changed from the brash and brought up questions as to how. Time obviously was a factor, but what happened in the intervening years was what he needed to know. If another village had gotten ahold of him and messed with his mind… He couldn't simply hand out trust anymore. He had run out of unconditional trust six years ago when this whole mess started.

'_I never did find the traitor._' Sarutobi thought grimly. '_Either he's long gone or I've been looking in the wrong places.'_

Sarutobi broke off from that line of thought. It wouldn't yield anything at present and fretting about the woulds and coulds was useless.

Inoichi could be trusted to shift through Naruto's mind and remain discreet about anything he discovered. At least, that was the plan.

**Line Break**

Inoichi found himself standing in a dusty library, positioned in between shelves that seemed to stretch on forever in any direction. A light fog suffused the air around him and shadows seemed to loom out from the unseen metaphors.

'_This is bad.'_ Inoichi thought as he scanned the area.

To a Yamanaka an untrained mind can be read like a book. Scroll after scroll detailing every thought, action, belief or concept was open to his touch without effort. To a more trained mind, the task of information retrieval became a bit more complicated. The mind would become like a landscape, usually of a place that had significant meaning or had influenced the person greatly at some point.

Inoichi eyed one of the books warily. He'd been prepared for a mindscape coming in here. But what he didn't expect was to be placed in a fully realized dreamscape. That changed things. Usually only Hokage's or elite Yamanaka's had this kind of mental discipline, not some child.

'_The Kyuubi must be responsible for this.'_ He resolved.

"Excuse me."

Inoichi jumped and spun around to face the boy whose mind he'd invaded.

Naruto shrank back at the movement, disappearing slightly into the fog.

'_What is he doing here?' _Inoichi wondered. '_I cast a mental represent along with the spike.'_

"I'm sorry." Naruto said, a single blue eye peeking out from under his hood. "I just thought you'd like some help finding what you're looking for. Some doors…. Aren't safe and it took me a few moments to find you. I had trouble entering my mind for some reason."

Inoichi eyed the boy critically. Normally he wouldn't trust someone who spoke so lightly of breaking one of his mental techniques, but the boy hadn't given him any reason to distrust him.

"Lead the way." Inoichi said, gesturing slightly.

Naruto nodded, pulling his hood up slightly so both of his eyes could peek out from under his hair.

'_He is diffidently showing signs of Agoraphobia.'_ Inoichi thought. '_The looming shadows and fog represent a generalized fear, but what could do that to a mind strong enough to create a dreamscape?'_

He'd have to follow the boy and find out.

Inoichi followed Naruto down twisting shelves, scaled pinnacles of thought, swam through oceans of doubt, and broke though chasms of names until they came to what appeared to be a library's lobby.

It was a huge domed structure, index shelves lined the circumference and a large, round receptionist desk made of a deep, rich red sat in the middle. Several rotating chairs sat in the center where the receptionists would sit and tend to their customers.

"Sorry it took so long to get here." Naruto apologized. "You picked a rather bad location to drop in at."

Inoichi ignored the boy, walking up to the round desk and picking up a filing role, shifting through it, they were all blank.

"This will be faster." Naruto said uncomfortably, walking over to where the marble arched entryway to the library stood, impressive and made to endure the test of time.

"This place seems familiar to me." Inoichi said, looking at the entryway.

"It's Taki's grand library." Naruto answered softly. "It's where I've spent the last six years of my life, forced to hid among the countless number of books kept there."

Inoichi's brow rose. He'd had the opportunity to visit Taki's library once in his youth. The library boasted the largest, most varied selection of histories, sciences, and supposedly, jutsu theories. They're only goal was to assemble everything ever written, catalogue it, and store it for everyone's perusal, for a price of course.

Naruto turned from the archway to face Inoichi.

"What do you want to see first?" He asked.

Inoichi's first impulse was to ask about the day he left Konoha and why. Sarutobi had told him that Itachi was involved on their way to see the boy. The Hokage wanted to know the exact circumstances of Naruto's disappearance. But Inoichi had a job to do first. He had to discover where the blond's loyalties lay.

"I suppose you use the archway as a portal to memories?" Inoichi asked, eying the white expanse that lay beyond the gate.

Naruto nodded.

"What happens if I go through without calling a memory?" Inoichi asked. He needed at least one memory that wasn't tampered with. The boy could be trying to show him a specifically crafted memory to gain his trust. It wouldn't be unreasonable from someone who could craft a dreamscape as detailed as this one was. Inoichi needed something that couldn't have been modified to use as a reference point to judge the rest of the memories on. With a reference point he could spot inconsistencies in a memory such as a change in colors, the temperament of the memory, the feel in the air.

Naruto shrugged and said softly, "you get a generalized memory, I suppose. Something close but not quite what you want."

Inoichi nodded. That was exactly what he wanted.

He began to walk forward but was drawn up short by Naruto holding up a warding hand.

"I'll go first." He said. "Not safe."

Inoichi nodded his agreement. He hadn't seen the Kyuubi anywhere and if his suspicions that the creature was lurking somewhere within Naruto's memories was true, it was for the best that the boy go before him. The seal protected the boy, not anyone snooping around in his head.

Naruto turned and entered the portal with Inoichi on his heels.

The archway vanished in a flash of white and Inoichi found himself standing in a forest, thick trees spaced respectably from each other. A flicker of movement drew Inoichi's attention to a much younger version of Naruto clambering over a large tree trunk, split in half and burnt by a thunderstorm that had passed some time ago, leaving a rotting carcass of wood in its wake. The boy had a wild look of desperation in his eyes as he fumbled his way clumsily over the remains of the tree. Inoichi could feel the boy's past terror through their mental link.

Normally a Yamanaka viewing a mind or dreamscape memory would be placed in the body of the target, viewing the memory through his eyes, feeling what he felt. Inoichi had found this a terribly inefficient way of getting the bigger picture of a situation.

It had taken him twenty years of hard work, but he'd finally created a jutsu that when used in conjunction with a mind spike would allow him to craft a more detailed, third person, view of the subject's memory.

"There isn't too much to this." Naruto said quietly from beside him, standing in the shadow of one of the looming trees.

Inoichi turned his head to look at the Naruto standing beside him, keeping the young Naruto falling down from the tree trunk in his peripheral.

"What is this place?" Inoichi asked, marveling at the size of the trees. They seemed familiar to him for some reason.

"A back entrance I found to the library. I seemed to…know where it was." Naruto said slowly in his usual quiet voice. In his eyes, however, there was confusion.

"Anything happen?" Inoichi asked.

"No." Naruto said shaking his head. "You wanted a random memory."

Inoichi nodded and the world vanished once more, resolving itself back in the form of the library gateway.

Inoichi had gotten the hang of the world by now. Reaching out a hand he willed a memory to appear. The white expanse hardened, becoming a large metallic door.

Inoichi flinched slightly when Naruto recoiled, staring at the door with barely concealed fear.

"What's wrong?" Inoichi asked, alarmed that he may have accidently summoned the Kyuubi by mistake. A fear he never thought he'd have in his lifetime. How often did one get to say, '_Oh, I'm sorry? I appear to have summoned the most powerful demon to walk to face of the planet by mistake. Terribly sorry about that, won't happen again._'

"This door… you'll go through alone." Naruto said, his eyes riveted to the door.

"Kyuubi?" Inoichi asked.

Naruto shrugged, which didn't comfort Inoichi any.

"He goes where he wants to." Naruto said softly.

"You mean it's free?" Inoichi asked in alarm.

"Not quite so literal." Naruto replied with a frown, trying to think of a way to phrase how the Kyuubi existed within his consciousness. "It can exist within my memories, but it can't escape the seal. I have it trapped within what's called a Quantum Enigma. It essentially scatters his mind throughout my mind, wandering through my memories like a labyrinth."

Inoichi blinked owlishly. He'd heard of the postulate before but hadn't thought that it was actually possible.

'_With the seal the fourth created help and a strong mind… It might just be possible.'_ He reasoned.

"We need to hurry." Naruto said. "You're running out of chakra. Piercing through my dreamscape is rather taxing on anyone, including myself."

Inoichi nodded and proceeded through the door, stepping out into a dimly lit cavern where the unmistakable form of Itachi was holding up an orange, squirming mass with his left hand and clutching at a wound in his side with his right. Inoichi noticed that Itachi was blinking faster than what was normal. That combined with the sweat and strained look made Itachi look like he'd been poisoned.

"It wasn't me. It was that other kid." The orange mass said, "It was the other kid, I swear. I don't know his name. He asked me to ask you if you needed a hand…he said he would be my friend if I did. I didn't know he would take the bread, honest I didn't."

"This must be when Itachi found Naruto." Inoichi said out loud, not having to fear being overheard.

"How did you end up here?" Itachi asked, ignoring the boy's pleas.

Inoichi was very curious as to where exactly 'here' was He didn't recognize this cavern and he'd spent a great deal of his youth with his friends exploring every nook and cranny of Konoha.

Itachi put Naruto down and stared at him, an indecisive expression scrawled on his face.

"M'found it a while ago." The boy mumbled, looking down and fidgeting from foot to foot.

Inoichi could tell that the Uchiha wasn't really listening by the way he nodded absentmindedly.

"What's that smell?" The Jinchuuriki asked curiously, leaning forward towards Itachi slightly, sniffing at the air curiously.

"Mister!" The boy exclaimed, his eyes widening, blue eyes glinting oddly in the torchlight. "You're bleeding!"

'_The boy wasn't very observant in his youth.'_ Inoichi noted mildly.

"Mister!" Naruto said again.

Inoichi almost missed it. Itachi moved like a coiled serpent and hit Naruto in the back of the neck, bringing the world to darkness. Naruto was unconscious and so there was no way he could tell what was happening around him. And so, neither could Inoichi.

Suddenly a massive Sharingan eye loomed from the black expanse, easily six times the size of Itachi, three tomoe spinning wildly.

"Run." Itachi's monotone voice boomed in the dark, the command shaking Naruto's unconscious mind with its force. "Run and hide… cling to your life, survive and grow stronger. Return to Konoha when you have questions you can't answer."

Inoichi wanted to find a way to traverse to the realm of the dead and kill Itachi again. The supposed prodigy should have known what a genjutsu of that power would do to a young, and even worse, unconscious, mind.

Inoichi closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, mind racing with what Itachi had done.

'_Naruto's mind wasn't protected and had no idea how to deal with a genjutsu of that magnitude. It's no wonder the boy is exhibiting signs of agoraphobia. It's a miracle that Naruto's even sane, that his mind wasn't turned into a gray puddle. The Genjutsu has had Naruto living in constant fear for the last six years, the fact that the boy let me even touch him must have taken quite a bit of willpower.'_

Inoichi opened his eyes and found that the Sharingan eye had vanished. A giant red, black slit pupil surrounded by a circular ocean of red stared down at him.

"Kyuubi." Inoichi breathed, desperately trying to will himself out of the memory. An icy feeling suddenly encompassed his entire body, as if he'd been dumped into a very large bucket of ice.

"You're the Kyuubi." He said again, trying to come to grips with what he was seeing.

"**I have always found it difficult to understand why you humans seem to enjoy continually stating and repeating the very, very obvious as in "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die."**__

Inoichi floundered. He was at a loss for words and unable to escape the beast before him. He was going to die.

"**But then again, many of the things you humans do confuse me. Idiots, the lot of you." **The demon continued absent-mindedly.

"What do you want with me?" Inoichi asked, a slight tremor in his voice.

"**Want with you?"** The demon asked as if it hadn't considered the prospect. **"What makes you think that I want anything with you at all?"**

Inoichi wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. The demon had trapped him here and yet it was claiming that it didn't want anything to do with him?

"**Ah, you seem to have trapped yourself here. Very silly of you, I must say."** The Demon said, a row of very white, very sharp, and very large teeth appearing uncomfortably close to him in the darkness.

"Trapped myself?" Inoichi asked.

"**Yes."** The demon said simply. **"Your mind imagines yourself helpless and so you disable yourself, crushed underneath your own imaginations. How very human of you."**

The eye and teeth spun around Inoichi dizzyingly for a moment before coming to a stop in front of him again.

"**Do you need help?"**__It asked mockingly.

Inoichi could barely nod his head. The cold was getting worse, snuffing out every part of him.

"**Fine, I'll help you just this once. But be sure to tell my container that I miss our conversations. They were so… tasty."**

The demon cackled. It sounded like a thousand nails being scrapped down just as many chalkboards. It set his teeth on edge and vibrated through him with the force of a two-ton battering ram.

And then it was over.

Inoichi stood panting heavily in the marble archway, the endless expanse of white just in front of him. After the total darkness he was in, the light was blinding. It hurt, his entire body hurt.

Inoichi breathed in suddenly, opening his eyes to come face to face with Naruto's face a few inches in front of him. Naruto blinked, the action sending waves of… something through Inoichi. The Yamanaka didn't quite have to words to describe the sensation. It felt like a duster had gone through and cleaned all the dark cobwebs out from his soul, leaving him refreshed and cleansed. But that wasn't it.

Inoichi felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning his head he saw the Hokage, sitting behind him.

"Are you all right?" He asked in a measure, calculating tone.

Inoichi realized that he was out of Naruto's mind. The simple reality of the situation took a moment to catch up to him. It seemed so impossible a moment ago.

"Yes." He croaked. Clearing his throat he tried again. "Yes, Lord Hokage. It's just that I wasn't quite prepared for what I discovered."

The Hokage held up a silencing hand.  
"First things first." He said. "Is the boy trustworthy?"

Inoichi thought about it for a moment.

There was clearly something going on between Naruto and the Kyuubi. But then again the demon had 'helped' him, apparently. The library dreamscape hadn't been faked, so that was where Naruto had spent a great deal of time. Taki was unlikely to have influenced the boy if he had remained hidden among the deep recesses of their filing department.

"Yes." Inoichi said slowly. "I found nothing to condemn him as a traitor."

A look of relief settled across the Third Hokage's face and he smiled.

"That's good to hear. Recover yourself for a moment while I speak with Naruto."

He turned to face Naruto, who'd once again retreated into his hood.  
"Naruto?" Sarutobi asked gently, eliciting a blue eye to peek out from under a hood. "I have a few questions, would you answer them?"

Naruto nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Are you all right? I know what happened to you when you turned eighteen. It seems as though you found a use for that special jutsu you invented. Naruto, I meant to tell you when you were older, when you were ready and able to understand why the Fourth did that to you."

Naruto's right eye appeared from under the hoody, staring at him intently. Sarutobi almost winced when he saw the anger and hurt in that eye, but it was the fear – they betrayal - that wounded him the most.

"I'm fine." Naruto replied quietly and shortly.

Gathering himself, Sarutobi nodded and asked his next question.

"Do you still want to be a ninja for Konoha?"

There was a long pause as Naruto considered the question.

"Medic." He said eventually.

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow in surprise. Becoming a medic ninja required a great deal of chakra control. With Naruto's immense supply that kind of control would be very difficult to obtain.

"Are you sure?" Sarutobi asked.

Naruto nodded, the bangs sticking out from under the lip of his hood flopping with the motion.

"Why?" Sarutobi asked. To be honest, he hadn't expected this reclusive Naruto to be much for combat. With his slender frame and weak charisma he'd be slaughtered out on the field, but he hadn't expected medical Ninjutsu to be Naruto's answer. He'd expected Naruto to choose something along the lines of Fuuinjutsu or Genjutsu.

"The world doesn't need more ninja." Naruto said quietly. "What it needs is more peacemakers, healers, and storytellers."

"David Orr?" Sarutobi asked in surprise. He wasn't known as the professor for no reason. He'd read more books than there were civilians in his village.

Naruto nodded slowly.

"Next question." Sarutobi said. "Naruto, will you look at me?"

Naruto peeked out of his hood and met Sarutobi's eyes.

"Are you going to be all right?" Sarutobi asked firmly.

He wasn't going to ask if Naruto was all right now. The answer to that was obvious.

Naruto's eyes wavered, asking a silent question to which Sarutobi nodded.

"I have answers," Sarutobi said, "When you're ready."

The Third Hokage wasn't quite sure how he should interpret the expression that crossed Naruto's face. It wasn't quite relief, but it wasn't fear either. It was an alloy of the two, fused together and joined at the hip.

"I have a key to another safe house you can stay at until we get you settled in another apartment." Sarutobi said, reaching into his robes and withdrawing a key.

Naruto shook his head.

"I still have my key." He said softly, gripping at a spot in his jacket just over his heart. "I would like to stay there again. It's familiar."

Sarutobi nodded, replacing the key in his pocket. No one had occupied the apartment during the six years Naruto had been gone. He'd made sure that it was kept clear just in case Naruto returned. He wanted to give Naruto a better place to live… but if the boy wanted to live there. Sarutobi wasn't going to judge him.

"I'll see you in the morning then." Sarutobi said gently, gesturing at the door. Naruto knew the way and Hiruzen had little doubt that the blond would want his privacy.

**Line Break**

The door clicked shut as Naruto left the building, leaving Inoichi alone with his Hokage. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Inoichi using the time to gather his wits and prepare to address his lord.

"What did you find?" Sarutobi asked.

"They boy's mind has been broken." Inoichi said simply. "Itachi cast a genjutsu I can't completely identify on an unconscious, demon container's mind, and it couldn't take the strain."  
Sarutobi drew in a sharp breath.

"But he seemed sane." He objected reasonably. "He spoke and reasoned with us."

Inoichi nodded agreeably.

"He has the most amazing willpower I've ever encountered. Itachi's genjutsu was simple in its order, but the ramifications were far more reaching than he could have known."

"What were Itachi's orders?"

"To run, survive and grow stronger. He ordered him to cling to his life." Inoichi responded gravely, his eyes darkening as he remembered the poorly worded command.

Sarutobi's brows met in confusion.

"He ordered him to survive? I don't see what that has to do with Naruto being broken."

Inoichi sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair. He was tired, slightly hung-over, and doing a very poor job of explaining why the boy was so messed up.

"Naruto was terrified at the time the genjutsu was cast on him, and Itachi used the word 'cling' when he imprinted the boy. On the surface it's a word like any other. But given Naruto's state of mind… it takes on a darker tone. It imprinted fear onto Naruto's soul."

Sarutobi's eyes widen for a moment before narrowing in thought.

"How could a single word have that much impact on a human mind?" he asked.

Inoichi chuckled darkly for a second, before replying in a flat tone.

"People often neglect how much impact words have on each other."  
Sarutobi nodded, he knew that already. He was a Hokage and a politician. Words were the tools he used to move the nation more often than his strength. But that didn't explain…

'_Of course.'_ Sarutobi thought, realization flooding through him. '_Inoichi said it already. Naruto was twelve years old and scared. He probably didn't know what 'cling' meant, but Itachi did, and it filtered in through the genjutsu. Cling would have a negative connotation to a ninja. Cling to life, because you fear death. Cling to a cliff edge, because you fear falling. Cling to hope, because you fear despair.' _

"Sir." Inoichi said weakly.

"Hm?" Sarutobi asked, breaking from his stupor.

"I do not recommend that you allow him as a combat medic. If he cracks and has a nervous breakdown on the field, it could kill his team mates."

"I had already thought of that." Sarutobi admitted. "The moment he told me he wanted to be a medic. That's one reason why I'm setting him a test tomorrow. Not only do I need to know how strong he's made himself, but also I'll need to see how he'll react when pressed."

Inoichi nodded his agreement.

"Naruto has the Kyuubi." Inoichi said heavily, his thoughts suddenly taking another turn.

"Yes?" Sarutobi said, raising an eyebrow at his advisor.

"Pain of Ame." Inoichi said weakly.

That was all he had to say for Sarutobi's expression to darken considerably.

Pain of Ame was a religion that had sprung up in Ame five years ago. To Sarutobi, it was a crude, boorish creation, and all too obvious what the intentions were behind it.

Pain of Ame's basic tenets were that nine demons were unleashed into the world long ago by a man, the original sinner, and that God had finally come to cleanse the world of their taint. However, his acts required mankind to show their devotion by cleansing none-believers and seeking the demons to offer up to their God. The 'cleansing' was a very loose term applied to who either converted or were killed. Which option was chosen rarely mattered.

The religion seemed more like a more concise, directed, version of a much older religion, Jashinism. It was far more palatable to the common person than Jashinism ever could be. It something they could pick up and believe without it interfering greatly in their personal lives, and made zealots out of everyone else.

The Chosen they were called, a sect above everyone else in the church. They reported directly to their God, Pain, in all things. They hadn't done anything more than preach throughout Ame, but recently they had been expanding. Supposedly there was a priest in Taki, a small boarding village of Konoha.

Sarutobi would have banned the religion if he didn't know that if he did, it would only increase the public's interest in what had gotten their Hokage, the professor, to forbid knowledge. It would only serve Pain's interest in collecting the Bijuu.

He'd already made the connection between Pain and the leader of Akatsuki. The religion made it plain as to their desire, but not their intentions.

'_Whatever it is, they won't have him. Not now that he's returned to me.'_ Sarutobi swore with conviction. '_They won't take Naruto from me again.'_

Blinking away his thoughts, Sarutobi regarded the Yamanaka looking at him through heavy eyelids. His advisor was tired after the probing and he was being cruel by having him sit there while he ran through his fears.

"You may go." Sarutobi said ruefully, smiling thinly. "Go, get some sleep. You look like hell."

Inoichi gave him a grateful smile as he stood up and walked through the door.

Sarutobi now sat alone, with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company. He rolled up his sleeve slightly to reveal a small seal array burned high onto his wrist.

It was placed there a two years after Naruto's disappearance, once he'd decided to set up a new guard for the Hokage.

There were the ANBU, but they had other duties other than just protecting their Hokage. ANBU were also numerous and well known now. Their numbers made them easier to infiltrate, proven by his old friend Danzo. His personal guard had none of those problems.

There would be only one guard, completely loyal to the Hokage. To be called at any time for any task. His position didn't officially exist and so was outside of the regular constraints of a ninja, listed officially as a semi-retired jounin. Who the guard is was only to be known to the current Hokage, and no one else.

He tapped the seal, worming chakra from his fingertips into the ink. It glowed briefly in response, sending its signal its twin on his guard's wrist. A moment later, Sasuke Uchiha opened the door and stepped inside.

His Sharingan was activated, as it always was while in his presence. An Uchiha was always ready for combat. To that end they could never be taken off guard, the Sharingan ensured this. Although he wasn't ANBU, he wore their uniform. A sleeveless black t-shirt under a white protective mesh covering, black pants and white mask without adornments to cover his face.

"Shut the door." Sarutobi commanded.

The door clicked shut. Once the door was closed, Sasuke turned to face him, assuming an open ready stance, red eyes glowing from behind the white mask.

"2576 Walker's apartment complex, room number 512. You are to guard the inhabitant, Naruto Uzumaki, until 6 a.m tomorrow, whereupon you'll bring him to training ground twelve. Dismissed."

Sasuke vanished, leaving Sarutobi to wonder why he bothered with the door in the first place.

'_To be young.'_ He thought lamentingly.

Turning his thoughts away from his guard, Sarutobi returned his attention to what Inoichi had said, more specifically, the pronoun he had used when talking about Naruto.

Inoichi had described Naruto as a 'he' in his mindscape. The nature seal Minato had placed on his child had worked, as impossible as that had seemed.

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair. Rallying his thoughts for the speech he would probably be giving the child as to why he'd changed genders on his eighteenth birthday.

'_I do hope that you'll understand when you come seeking answers, Naruto. He did it to protect you and ensure your career. This world isn't kind to females. Kumo is probably the only other nation that doesn't care about your gender, but it isn't out of progress or anything of the like. They are so militaristic that they only see weapons; gender doesn't even enter into the equation. _

_Konoha treats them like porcine, herding them into safer jobs, like the one you chose, being a medic. I had hoped that you would break that stereotype, but I can understand why you wouldn't. Maybe, had things been different, you would have chosen to take my place. Maybe you could have given Choji a run for his money._'

Sarutobi glanced down at his robes, a sealing scroll he kept on him at all times lay in its enveloping folds. Within that scroll, amongst the other contents, he kept a dairy written by his deceased successor and Naruto's father.

He'd read it enough to have memorized its contents. One passage in particular was meant for Naruto to read.

**Line Break**

_April 2, XXX_

_Kushina's pregnant! I can't believe it! We're having a baby! I'm going to be a father! A father! Me! Kushina was so happy when she told me, glowing and bouncing around in excitement (the bouncing may not be good for the baby - I'll have to ask). She couldn't stop smiling and laughing for hours, and when she finally did stop it was only because she was having trouble swallowing her food. I confess to having difficulty eating as well._

_This baby really is a miracle, reminding me never to give up. We suffered such immense losses in the Third War that at times it has seemed impossible to continue. But now the war is over. We are rebuilding, and life moves forward. Our child gives me such hope for a peaceful future, free of the hatred and malice that scars this shinobi world. As the Hokage of Konoha and as a father, I will ensure that the next generation knows the value of peace. They will know that the Will of Fire means more than protecting your loved ones, that a stranger and sometimes even an opponent are just as deserving of their protection, and by extending the hand of peace even to our enemies, we may in time halt this cycle of hatred. My child's generation will know the true meaning of the Will of Fire. I make it my mission._

_In other news, I made Kushina swear on every beautiful strand of her red hair that she would NOT_ _tell Jiraiya-sensei and Kakashi that I squealed like a girl when she told me the news. I would never live it down._

_**Line Break**_

_April 28, XXX_

_Kushina has had another check up with a medic, and all looks well! Our baby seems healthy and happy! Well, I assume it's happy - not like there's much to be unhappy about in its cushy, warm environment. (Kushina disparages when I refer to our baby as 'it.' In my defense, we don't know if it's a boy or a girl, and it's too much trouble to say and write 'he or she' each time.) My smile is fading a little now as I remember that Kushina and I have already had two arguments today. Do all new parents have such difficulties?_

_For instance, the color of the baby's room. I wanted a nice, pale shade of green, perfect for a boy or a girl, that would symbolize our new little leaf in the Hidden Leaf Village. Kushina wanted vibrant yellow because the child is the sunshine of our lives. Makes sense, I guess, except...it's yellow. Such a finicky color. One shade off and it's like the vomit from one of the Inuzuka clan's dogs. She was not happy when I told her that. Why haven't I learned to keep my mouth shut? Blue and pink were out for obvious reasons, so I suggested a simple red like the color of Kushina's beautiful hair. I should have known better. The Red Hot Habanero made an appearance, and only her concern for the baby kept her from strangling me. I will have to hide the bruises around my neck before going to work tomorrow. Speaking of bruises, the next color Kushina tossed out was purple. Purple. I'm not joking. P-U-R-P-L-E. I flat out told her 'no' and had to use Hiraishin no Jutsu to escape her temper. I think it will be at least a week before she speaks to me again._

_I don't even want to think about what it will be like when we have to choose a name._

**Line Break**

_May 5, XXX_

_Orange. The nursery will be orange. Kami, I hope our child doesn't hate me for this. I will have to explain that I spent hours - literally, hours - in the store finding the perfect shade of orange that was bright enough to suit Kushina but gentle enough that it wouldn't burn our eyes when we walked in the room. I'm making Kakashi help with the painting. The boy trains endlessly when he's not on a mission, like one possessed. I know why, of course. I only wish Rin and Obito were here to help as well._

**Line Break**

_May 12, XXX_

_As I was reading over my past entries (grinning like a fool because, yes, I'm going to be a father and Kushina is such a headstrong, wonderful woman), a certain phrase jumped out at me, sparking a memory - 'never give up.' It bothered me all day until, arriving home, I glanced at my bookshelf._

_Now, most of what my sensei writes is forbidden in this house. With Kushina around, to bring home a copy of 'Icha Icha Paradise' would be...ill-advised. (Jiraiya-sensei tried once, and only escaped by jumping into Bunta's mouth.) However, there is one book, his first book, that even Kushina loves: 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja.' I grabbed it from the bookshelf and ran to Kushina in excitement. Her eyes widened and a smile played on her lips._

_'Naruto,' she said. 'We'll name our baby Naruto.'_

_There was no question, no argument. The only flicker of doubt I had was that it may not be a feminine enough name for a girl, but my worries soon eased. This was Kushina's child, after all. If it was a girl, she would certainly be a tomboy._

_I cannot wait to meet you. Naruto._

**Line Break**

_**July 7**__**th**_

'_I'm panicked. I admit it. I, the Yondaime Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash, am panicked. Kushina and I just returned early from the annual Tanabata festival due to an unfortunate encounter which alerted me to a terrible threat._

_We arrived at the festival in good time. Lights were strung from the roofs and lampposts. Colorful streamers adorned the streets and stands. The entire village was alive with gaiety and vigor. I was proud to be the leader of a merry Konoha. It was more than an hour later, after several sticks of dango, that I realized that sometimes 'gaiety' and 'vigor' can be found in excess and that the heady combination is more often than not found in the youth of Konoha. Kushina and I witnessed a number of young people slipping away from their parents to rendezvous with a member of the opposite sex. And speaking of sex, most of them weren't far from it. They found cozy corners in the alleys to snuggle up with their crush. Kushina giggled, thinking the atmosphere of romance sweet, and reminded me that we had done the same not so many years before. I mostly ignored her chattering about the past because my mind was otherwise occupied._

_In that moment, the realization hit me more sharply than any kunai. For the first time, I really understood. I. Am. Going. To. Be. A. Father. I am going to raise a child from newborn to toddler to teenager. Teenager, I say. Teenager!_

_Honestly, before tonight, I didn't care whether we had a boy or a girl. I thought a boy would be nice because I could teach him jutsus and weaponry and pass on the Will of Fire. I imagined Kushina bringing him to my office so he could see how awesome his dad was. (Yes, I've indulged in many such fantasies. Is that so wrong?) But a girl, well, I could do essentially all the same things with her as with a boy, and furthermore, she might be just like a little Kushina. I could have two Kushinas! At that moment, I was ready to insist that the baby be a girl. I was on my way to track down my unborn baby and tell her so when it dawned on me... two Kushinas. I love my wife dearly, but...two Red Hot Habaneros in my little house... I quickly backtracked and reconsidered. A boy with milder temper than my dear wife wouldn't be so bad after all. Thus, I returned to the happy state of being satisfied with either._

_My happy state is gone. Because I am well and truly panicked. The frightening scenes I saw tonight have awakened me to nightmares I hadn't dreamed of. Things I hadn't considered before. Things I would have preferred __NEVER__ to think about._

_If we have a boy, I would raise him to be kind, respectful, and considerate towards the opposite gender, not a pervert like his godfather. But what if we have a girl? She would be beautiful like her mother, intelligent like her father. A fine kunoichi in every sense of the word, and she would go on missions with her team. My daughter alone with three males. Unsupervised! Someone. Would. Try. To. Steal. Her. From. Me. Some dreadful, awful boy would influence her in her most tender years, and my little girl would find herself victim to his impure machinations._

_An hour into the festival I had begun to glare at every male child under the age of five. None were safe from me because my daughter was not safe from them. Now that I am back home and can think rationally, I realize that I may have gone a tad overboard. Kushina says that is an understatement. After all, several of the boys I glared at ran to their mothers wailing. Perhaps I should feel guilty that I do not, in fact, feel guilty. Whatever._

_Then we encountered the Uchihas - Fugaku and his wife. Mikoto-san was pregnant, as well. Very pregnant, and Kushina simply gushed to her about the babies. I was speaking with Fugaku, exchanging pleasantries and the like, when I heard Mikoto-san say that they had chosen to learn the gender of their baby. And it was a __boy__._

_My head whipped around so fast I think it'll have a crick for a week. I looked at the Uchiha woman. I looked at her stomach. I __GLARED__. The brat would be two months older than my daughter. They would play on the same playground, go through the Academy together, maybe even be on the same team as genin. The Uchihas had always been an attractive family. Fugaku and I were rivals in the academy, and he had even more fangirls than I did. His son was sure to take after him, just as talented and eye-catching. It was the worst thing I could imagine._

_I didn't realize my glare was causing some mild alarm until Fugaku stepped closer to his wife and Kushina slapped me on the head._

_'What seems to be the problem, Namikaze?' asked Fugaku in warning._

_I think I may have blushed a little in embarrassment, but I was not to be dissuaded. I pointed my finger at Mikoto's stomach. 'I don't want your son within an __INCH__ of my daughter.'_

_Silence reigned over our little group, and several heads of nearby villagers turned our way._

_'M-minato,' Kushina said, recovering first, 'We don't even know if we're having a girl.'_

_'Oh,' said Fugaku coldly (I did not catch the little quirk in the right corner of his mouth, though Kushina mentioned it later), 'you are suggesting that my son isn't good enough for your daughter?'_

_I had already realized my mistake. As Hokage, it would not do to insult the head of the Uchiha clan, but still...as a father, I had a duty to protect my daughter. 'That was not my intention, Uchiha. I was merely setting some ground rules for our children. Er, in order to promote a healthy atmosphere.'_

_'Ground rules,' Fugaku mused. 'You will be a harsh father then?'_

_'I will be a prudent father,' I distinguished. 'No male interaction until she is able to see through their deceit and flattery. A handsome face is nothing but trouble.'_

_'Are you suggesting that your daughter will be as fluttery-eyed and vapid as the fangirls in the Academy?'_

_'No!' I was enraged, Hokage-hood forgotten. 'I'm suggesting that your son will make a play for my daughter!'_

_'I daresay my son will be able to capture the attention of any girl he wishes.'_

_'Naruto is off-limits!'_

_'Naruto, eh? Well, I think my son can do better than a girl named after a fish cake.'_

_'Why you -!'_

_'Minato!' Kushina had run out of patience. 'Stop embarrassing me! We're going home. Excuse us, please, Fugaku-san, Mikoto. We look forward to meeting your son.'_

_My wife grabbed me by the ear and frog-marched me back home. I heard titters from the gathered crowd of civilians and shinobis that grew into a roar once we were out of sight. I do believe that even the stoic Fugaku was laughing at me. I can see now that he was baiting me, but that does not lessen my panic._

_My wife is rarely the voice of reason. For her to tell me to calm down and be reasonable is a bad omen. The worst omen. That is why I am certain that I will soon be the proud father of a beautiful girl and that the little Uchiha brat will one day torment her mercilessly. I cannot and __WILL NOT__ allow it. I will see to it that my child is protected from his vile intentions. Now there's yet another reason why I am glad to be the Hokage. Once the Uchiha brat is under my jurisdiction, I will ensure that his every waking moment is haunted by blue eyes and sudden flashes of yellow. He will quickly learn that there is no escape from me._

_Naruto, I have written out the whole of the affair so that one day you will appreciate what I go through for you, and now I must spend some time contemplating the best tactic to save you from the clutches of the Uchiha clan.'_

**Line Break**

Sarutobi highly doubted that Minato planned to turn Naruto into a boy simply for him to escape 'The Uchiha clutches.' But rather that he was protecting Naruto from would-be assassins. Over his career Minato made many enemies, none of which would show restraint, even if it was a child. Minato had been desperate, nearing his suicide via Fuuinjutsu, he had been left with few choices in protection methods. He could have trusted the village, but… many blonds had met inexplicable deaths after the Kyuubi's attack. Maybe he was just being wise. It was what Hokages were heralded for, after all.

Sarutobi heaved a long sigh. He was getting too old for this.

**Line Break**

Naruto stepped out of the safe house and bit back the torrent of nervousness that assaulted him. His body froze as the shadows cast by the buildings in the midafternoon sun seemed to draw in closer at his presence, waiting for the correct moment to strike.

The Genjutsu cast by Itachi had ended a few days ago, but its effects still lingered, only the intensity had decreased.

When he had been trapped in the library, every waking moment had been a living nightmare. He trained in fear, ate in fear, and studied in fear. Sharingan eyes hovered over his shoulder, enforcing their will that he become stronger. His dreams were the only safe haven he could find. He dreamed of home, of his classmates, of the wonderful ramen he'd have at Ichiraku's. He dreamed of what he feared he could never have again.

To that end he mastered his control over the elements, memorized histories, biographies, and researched genjutsu. The only subject that the genjutsu hadn't forced him to learn was medical techniques, as they weren't aggressive. They traditionally didn't lead to power. And that was why he had chosen to pursue it. He'd had enough of power over the last six years. He'd grown sick of it.

Naruto set off at a slight brisk walk. His apartment wasn't far, thankfully. He longed for something familiar, somewhere he could relax. Turning a corner a particularly dense shadow cast by an overhang jumped out at him, a Sharingan eye spinning in it's midst.

Intellectually he knew it wasn't real, but that didn't stop its coming. Knowing the sword was lodged in your chest didn't stop it from killing you. So Naruto grit his teeth and pressed through it. Psychosomatics was the psychological term. He'd read it in a book: "Mental Disorders and How to Take Advantage of Them."

'_Are you all right? I know what happened to you when you turned eighteen. It seems as though you found a use for that special jutsu you invented. Naruto, I meant to tell you when you were older, when you were ready and able to understand why the Fourth did that to you.'_

The stupid question kept coming back to the surface of his mind like an unwanted coach roach.

'_Of course I'm not all right. I endured several days of agony as a seal I didn't know was there fell apart, ending one morning when I woke up as a girl. My gender was one thing I felt I could count on in the hell I was placed in. Even that was taken away from me.'_

He would seek answers. Sarutobi promised he had them. But not right now. Right now he needed to adjust, adapt to the situation at hand. Basic military tactics taught that the key to success was to grab a firm hold on what you had and fortify it before seeking new territory.

His body was female, but his mind was still his own. He would adjust to accommodate the new situation. The Henge he'd invented when he was young was reverse engineer able. It made him look and feel like a girl, now it could make him look and feel like a guy.

He would have to accommodate to the slightly shorter reach he had while female in case he couldn't for some reason maintain the Henge. Not only did the Henge require constant attention to keep from slipping, but it also held a portion of his chakra in reserve to fuel the jutsu. It was small enough that it didn't affect him naturally, but if he got into a hard fight he might have to dispel it.

'_There is always the shock and awe value of having your opponent suddenly switch genders mid-battle.' _Naruto thought humorlessly.

He was still Naruto. The demon he contained didn't make him evil. His gender reversal wouldn't change who he was either, he was quite determined on that fact.

Denial, that was the philological term applied to what he was suffering from, he'd read it in a book.

Naruto rounded the final corner and saw his apartment at the other end of the street. It wasn't a very nice apartment, as far as apartments went. It was very square, squattish, a garish shade of orange, and its proportions were generally entirely unappealing. But it was his, every inch of it. He knew it like he knew the principles of chakra manipulation. Its every craggy surface was ingrained into his soul, faults and misconceptions all.

Naruto smiled gently at the building, where no Sharingan eye glared at him from the shadows. He was home.

**Line Break**

Sasuke sat perched like a hawk on the roof of the adjacent building to the one he had been watching all evening. The sun was just peaking over the horizon, sending its welcoming rays across Konoha with annoying optimism to the Uchiha.

Two issues had been plaguing him all evening. The first of which was why he was out here to begin with. He was the personal guard to a Hokage, of whom he was even stronger, as unfair a statement as that was to make. His lord was no longer in his prime and Sasuke had passed him in strength a year ago, shortly after his seventieth birthday.

It had been a somber affair. No one was to know that Sasuke had once had his blade pointed at the throat of a battered and defeated Hokage. As far as the world was concerned, Sasuke was a dropout Jounin who'd made a small name for himself and then retired to the relative safety of his ancestral home.

He'd grown up since the day he'd sworn to leave a grand legacy. It was a child's dream. Legends either faded or grew so out of proportion they were no longer creditable. No, that wasn't what he wanted. What he wanted was power for the sake of power. He wanted it because that was what he was. If the day came where he did something so great that his name echoed in the halls of the dead, then he could rest easy. But he wouldn't force himself on the world. He was content with who he was.

Unfortunately his village didn't share the same appreciation of his 'rise' to jounin hood. Jutsu-stealing-prick, was just one of the much nicer names he was called by his peers. Sakura and a few of her friends tolerated his presence, and he often used them as alibies for his whereabouts when he was on missions for his Hokage, but none of them actually liked him.

He was fine with that. He didn't need or want their approval. Because what did their thoughts matter when he was content with himself? He only answered to himself and the Hokage now.

The second problem that plagued him was his target. The name 'Naruto Uzumaki' seemed dreadfully familiar to him.

'_Was it one of those twits when I was in the academy?'_ He wondered to himself.

So much had happened over the years. So many memories were lost amongst chakra theory and jutsu memorization. But still, the name 'Naruto' held a special place of distinguished hatred in his heart. He couldn't remember who the person was, but he was quite certain that whoever it was had vexed him greatly at one point of his life.

He was interrupted from his brooding when the alarm he'd set for five-fifty seven went off, sounding its suppressed tones from within his ANBU vest. Removing his mask from his face – he was to retrieve 'Naruto Uzumaki' as jounin Sasuke - and storing it in a seal tattooed around his right ankle, Sasuke leaped from the roof, soaring through the air like a hawk until he landed with a muffled clang on the apartment's banister railing. The metal gave a groan of protest and shook warningly, but held his weight long enough for him to casually step off and alight just in front of Naruto's apartment.

Sasuke stood there until he mentally counted out another three minutes. At six on the dot, Sasuke raised his fist and knocked primly on the door three times. Folding his arms behind his back, he waited at the ready.

Two minutes later and Sasuke was still standing at the door.

'_Did Uzumaki leave already?'_

Sasuke released a small pulse of chakra, sending out a signal much like a bat.

'_One chakra signature still inside.'_

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the door and knocked once more, this time with quite a bit more force and insistence, not to mention a small drab of chakra to enhance the sound.

He was slightly satisfied to hear a muffled thump quickly followed by a few indistinguishable curses come from the other side of the door. Sasuke allowed himself to bask in his petty revenge for a moment. He grew bored easily as there were few in Konoha who either cared to spar with him, and fewer who even cared to look at him. He found entertainment where it could be had, in the small things scattered throughout life.

The distinct _thump thump_ sound of footfalls resounded from the other side of the door, drawing closer until they reached the wooden portal. A clatter of the locks and the door swung open to reveal a blonde girl of about Sasuke's age.

She was approximately the same height as Sasuke, had black bags under crystal blue eyes, still lingering from apparent lack of sleep. Her blonde hair hung down in a golden, tangled cascade, a perfect example of snarled grace. Sasuke noted, clinically and dispassionately, that she was dressed in a loose fitting black tank top that revealed a sizeable amount exposed skin, not mention a modest bust and orange sweatpants that were far to small for her frame – they appeared designed for a thirteen year old boy. Her most notable feature that drew his attention was the three black birthmarks on both of her cheeks that gave her the strange appearance of having whiskers.

Sasuke's hazy memories of a loud, blond boy from the academy were interrupted by the girl in front of him as she breathed quietly, "Bastard," and then slammed the door in his face.

He wasn't entirely sure what he'd been doing to warrant being called a bastard this time, and so directly too boot. He certainly hadn't been ogling her – he didn't know or care about her. And he hadn't been commandeering one of her jutsu. Konoha had far better, and easily more normal examples of feminine beauty contained within her walls.

There was a brief flare of chakra from inside, and a few minutes later the door opened to reveal what was definitely this time a man, dressed in a black hoodie and orange cargo pants, the drawstrings pulled so that his eyes were hidden from view.

"Naruto Uzumaki?" Sasuke asked hesitantly, put off his stride by the strange shift.

"…Yes?" Naruto said quietly.

Shaking off his stupor, Sasuke stood a bit straighter, trying to take control of the situation again.  
"The Hokage requests your presence at training ground twelve. I am to escort you there myself."

The Hokage had made no mention that there were a brother and sister residing in the apartment. The old man must be growing forgetful in his old age. Sasuke hoped that Sarutobi would hurry up and name Choji his successor so that mix-ups like this would become less frequent.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke apologized as courteously as he could, given his frustration with his lord, "but I wasn't informed that there were two of you. Will your sister be joining us?"

Naruto hesitated for a second before shaking his head in the negative. Sasuke nodded his head curtly

"This way then." Sasuke said, gesturing back towards the building he'd been perched on for the last several hours. Turning, he launched himself from the doorway, back across the gap in the street and onto the roof of the building. Glancing behind him, Sasuke saw that Naruto hadn't followed. The blond just stood there with his hands in his pockets and hoodie over his eyes.

They regarded each as best as they could without making eye contact for a brief moment before Naruto turned and made his way towards the stairs of the apartment building, traveling at a sedate pace.

Sasuke blew ineffectually at his black bangs dangling above his eyes.

'_This is going to be a long day.'_ He predicted.

**Line Break**

Naruto turned and made his way towards his apartment's stairs, ignoring the glare the bastard was giving him from where he stood on the other building's roof. He recognized Sasuke Uchiha even though he hadn't recognized him, not that Naruto could blame him. It had been years since they'd last insulted each other and he'd undergone a few changes since then, most of them unwilling.

Although his eyes were black at present, Naruto could still see those hated, red eyes staring out at him from the depths of the bastard's black irises. Naruto had to tell himself that it wasn't Sasuke's fault, that he hadn't used them the way Itachi had. If what he'd read in Taki's biographies could be believed, Sasuke had probably suffered from a similar treatment at the hands of his older brother.

Stepping off of the stairs he turned and looked up at the building where the Uchiha was standing, crouched at the edge of the ledge, staring down at him with a blank expression.

Naruto stood his ground. He wasn't going to lose to the sharingan or those who wielded it again. As if the specters had heard his thoughts, sharingan eyes appeared in every darkened window, every build's shadow, and every black crevice in the ground. The three black tomoe spun wildly, each eye commanding his fear and dominating his presence.

It nearly overwhelmed him.

Naruto froze and drew on his hoodie strings, bringing the familiar folds of his jacket over his firmly shut eyes. They would have him return to that dusty tomb, with its stifling books and unending dark corridors. He wouldn't go back.

He wouldn't.

He wouldn't.

A hand gripped his shoulder, fingernails biting painfully into his skin, five piercing spears cutting into his flesh.

Naruto reacted on instinct, using reflexes burned into him by practicing with various clones. Reaching up with his right hand with a motion so quick and unexpected that Sasuke didn't have enough time to react, Naruto pressed his thumb and forefinger just above Sasuke's wrist line with his middle finger through pinky finger just below. With a single deft twist he dislocated Sasuke's wrist. He didn't have enough time to build up the ShayJan he used to supplement his Taijutsu, but he wasn't entirely defenseless without it.

It took Sasuke only a second to realize what happened, and less than that to respond in kind. Spinning on the spot, using his left foot as an axis while simultaneously popping his joint painfully back into place, he struck out with his left leg in a whip like back kick.

With the hoodie still over his eyes, kept there by chakra to shield his eyes in case Sasuke activated his doujutsu, Naruto blocked the blocked the blow with his elbow, catching the blow in the arch of Sasuke's foot. He didn't entirely need his vision for close quarters combat. He could _'see'_ by feeling the air currents with his chakra and sensing the human shape void in the pockets of wind around him.

Channeling chakra to stick him to his attacker's foot, Naruto twisted his arm in a hammer motion intended to take the Uchiha off his footing and bring him to the ground in a single easy movement.

Sasuke, instead of resisting the blow like he intended, moved with it displaying a fluid grace as he arched through the air, whipping his other heel at Naruto's temple in a single, deft movement. Releasing Sasuke, Naruto leaned back to avoid the blow, the tip of Sasuke's sandaled foot brushing against his nose in a near miss.

Naruto took two easy steps back while sliding into a defensive stance to recover as Sasuke landed in a crouch, his Sharingan eyes blazing to life.

They both realized the mistake the other had made at the same time. Both ninja stood a few away from each other, unmoving as statues; the merest hint of movement would have been enough to send them back into the fight. They stood like that for several tense moments and probably would have been there longer if a jeweler opening his front door for the day hadn't shattered the moment. The man had looked back and forth between the two, done the relatively easy math, and closed his door again, deciding that now wasn't the greatest time to be opening for the day and perhaps he should try again in an hour or so when there was less risk for a messy death.

Naruto moved first, dropping the stance he'd been holding and brushing off the shoulder Sasuke had grabbed in an attempt to wipe of the taint of the contact. Sasuke had probably meant well by the action. Naruto could imagine himself curling up in a ball, doing his best to minimize himself in the middle of the street.

But still, as a ninja he should have known not to approach a target while he seemed unbalanced. Had Sasuke not read the book 'Unorthodox Encounters and How to Deal With Them'?

'_Probably not.'_ Naruto thought, answering his own question.

"We should get going." Sasuke said calmly, as if nothing had happened between the two.

Naruto nodded, tugging at his hoodie strings. The clarity of battle had washed away his fears temporarily. Now they were free to consume him again. Giving them one last tug before releasing them, Naruto followed the Uchiha as they made their way to the training ground.

**Line Break**

Keldin idly fingered the obsidian rod's nub idly, an unconscious habit he'd picked up as of late. The rod inserted between his third and fourth rib, driven through his heart, was a gift from his God. It was an honor to be chosen by his lord, Pain. Before he'd joined the priesthood Keldin had been a master blacksmith. At thirty-six years of age he stood at an impressive six feet three with bulging and thickly corded muscles that strained against his slender gray monk robe's sleeves. Even before that, however, he'd been on his village's council, known for his intellect and ponderous thoughts. His life had been a pleasant one, despite the constant wars Ame went through. He could support his family, feed his children, and even take a vacation or two when funds would allow. His wife, Bella, had been a pleasant woman. Many would have described her as homely. She was of average height, weight, and intelligence, with short cropped brown hair and a love of knitting. But to Keldin, she was the most beautiful thing in existence. Nothing he'd ever crafted could compare to her majesty.

Then it had all been taken from him in a single instant. Mist ninja butchered his family and friends while he had been delivering his goods to an outside village. He'd come home to find both the corpses of his wife and child huddled in a bloody corner of their wood cabin estate. Bella shielding their six-year-old son with her body, her severed arm lying grotesquely where it had been cut off when she had tried to beat them away. And suddenly, Keldin was left alone in the world, destitute and emotionally cold.

Keldin shook his head vigorously. Memories of the past would distract him from the moment. He was a Priest of Pain now. His past no longer mattered. All of the years Keldin spent toiling as an acolyte had finally paid off when the half inch, obsidian gray rod had been rammed through his chest. He had barely survived. His God had rewarded him. His God was kind.

It was through His grace that he was deemed worthy to live and receive the benefits of being one of the Pain's priests. One of the benefits was he was able to hear the voice of his god wherever at all times and wherever he went. God whispered to him, giving him hope, courage, and sometimes instruction. As a Priest, Keldin had been given a mission just like all the other Priests before him: destroy the non-believers of Ame. As a former blacksmith of a small outside village, Keldin had never killed anything. But for his God, he'd shift the planet's axis for the asking.

The trouble with killing non-believers was that they were notoriously difficult to find. Ame was a large, rainy country, full of caves and tunnels to hide in. But tonight was special, he'd chanced upon an old drunk, muttering into his cup about reckless youth and their foolish plans. He'd been ecstatic. Finally a chance had presented itself for him to prove himself once more to his god.

The sinners had chosen a small cave just outside of a borderland town. If Keldin were planning a rebellion, that would be an ideal place to meet. Keldin jumped into the small hole in the ground, gray robes of Priests of Pain fluttering about him as he fell the short distance to the rocky floor. He had found this tunnel earlier that day when he'd been scouting the future meeting place out. It led right to a large, hollowed out space where the sinners would be meeting.

After some dexterous crawling, Keldin came to a hole, just large enough to squeeze his bulky frame through. Pausing at the hole, he withdrew his obsidian ax. Steeling his rough-hewn features, acquired through many years at the forge, Keldin sent a prayer to his God, asking him for strength.

His God responded. Strength surged through Keldin; his God had heard his prayer and empowered him with his holy strength. Small blue dots appeared in the blackness of his vision in the next chamber beyond. With his God's help he could see past the bodies of man, past the veil of darkness, and see their souls. Each blue dot in his vision represented a human presence. Keldin counted twelve indistinct figures huddled around a small candle propped on a table.

Although he couldn't see his eyes, Keldin knew that his normally orange irises had turned a deep and piercing purple, just like the others of his order did when God was with them.

Although gathering was smaller than he thought it would be. In the end, it didn't matter. Heathens were heathens. Keldin squeezed himself through the hole, dropping down into the middle of the assembly. A high-pitched scream rent the air as Keldin smashed into the table they had been gathered around. Channeling his God's anger, Keldin did what he alone could not. He channeled the ninja's chakra, pushing on the bodies around him.

Ninjas had taken his family from him. Now he would use their fifthly magic against them. They would pay highest of all amongst the sinners. Demons, ninjas, and heathens were promised a special place in Pain's eternal fire.

"**Shinra Tensei: Almighty push."** Keldin said softly, speaking the holy punishing words of his God. Pushing was the only right he had earned thus far. Others of his order were reputed to have even more. Keldin fervently believe that one day, he would be God's right hand. He had faith.

The souls around him went flying, the table that Keldin had been standing on shattered and sprayed shrapnel in all directions, the candle snuffed out under his force. Five of the souls flickered and then vanished when they collided with uneven, and in some places, spiked walls. Another three souls died when bits of the table skewered them, turning their bodies into pincushions, not that Keldin could see at the moment, imbued as he was with God's vision. Bodies were inconsequential, only souls mattered.

Five souls remained. Three had managed to recover and were running down the main tunnel, screaming. Another two tainted souls were gibbering incoherently on the ground, desperately trying to escape down the tunnel the other three were escaping down.

Turning to face the wall opposite of the tunnel, Keldin held out his hand, fingers splayed wide.

"**Shinra Tensei: Almighty Push."** He intoned again.

The force of his God's furry slammed against the wall with all of the force of a battering ram, sending Keldin flying down the tunnel the three had run down like water in a stream. As Keldin passed them by, he struck outward with his ax, with only the slight tugging on his weapon signaling the passing of three more sinner's souls.

Keldin landed heavily on his shoulder, his massive frame bouncing a few times before coming to a rest. He may use ninjas accursed powers, but he didn't possess a their grace yet. That would come with time.

Keldin rose quickly, God's power mending the cuts he'd sustained from the jagged tunnel ground. Stomping back down from where he'd come, he made quick work of the two souls remaining.

"**Be well, my son."** His god told him before leaving. The world returned to its usual, bland, soul-less quality, leaving Keldin alone once more.

He had to see them. He had to look upon a sinner's face and curse them for turning their backs on God, for not placing their utmost devotion to the being whom loved them so.

Pulling a small hand-torch from his robes, he lit it with a match he'd pulled from one of the many pockets in his robes.

The blacksmith nearly retched at what he beheld. In front of him, a short distance where he'd first pushed, was a child impaled through the chest on one of the many stalagmites that littered the cave. Her open, orange eyes that were so much like his own, stared blankly at him. The girl couldn't have been older than nine. Keldin jerked his head down, not wanting to witness what he'd done. A piece of paper caught his eye. It must have fallen from the table when he'd landed on it. Reaching down he picked it up, desperately wanting to distract himself from the child's corpse.

The paper had a poorly drawn design of a fort with crude instructions on how to build it. Keldin felt bile rise up at the back of his throat, a sickly burning sensation running down his spine.

A small pulse coursed through his body, emanating from the rod in his chest. His God had sensed his unease and was reminding him that he was the guiding force behind Keldin's actions.

_That's right._ Keldin thought, his mind easing. _God gave me the power to end sin. God is kind and these children are the spawn of the impure. What I did here today was justified, holy. _

Keldin replaced his ax in its belt loop inside his robe. His path to bring about the glory of his God had come. The ninja who'd taken his family and other's families would feel his displeasure in due time.

**End of Chapter Two**

**A/N: Yes, Naruto is female. I've read a half-dozen stories where Naruto is/becomes female, and each time he/she immediately enters into a relationship. He/she also has the terrible tendency of immediately accepting his 'new' role as female, becoming what the traditionally accept role as a female, as submissive to the male. Not only do I find that highly unlikely, but also I find it semi-uninteresting. I'm going to 'attempt' to craft a different take on the whole scenario, where Naruto plays a strong lead (When I actually get purely to the Naruto point of view. I need to craft the other characters in this story as well and the best way to do that is through their eyes. Feedback on how I'm doing would be greatly appreciated.**


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